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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
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http://www.archive.org/details/sketchesOOholb 



SKETCHES, 



BY A TRAVELLER 



" His eye must see, his foot each spot must tread 
Where sleeps the dust of earth's recorded dead, 
Where rise the monuments of ancient time, 
Pillar and pyramid, in age sublime, 
The pagan's temple and the Christian's tower, 
War's bloodiest plain and wisdom's greenest bower; 
All that his wonder waked in school-boy themes, 
All that his fancy fired, in youthful dreams." 



BOSTON, 

PUBLISHED BY CARTER AND HENDEE. 

MDCCCXXX 



d* 






r 



DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT i 

District Clerk's Office. 
Be it remembered, that on the eleventh day of January, A. D. 1830, ip 
the fiftyfourth year of the Independence of the United States ol America, Carter 
and Uendee, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, 
the r'ight_ whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to wit : 

' Sketches, by a Traveller. ' 

" His eye must see, his foot each spot must tread 
VVheie sleeps the dust of earth's recorded dead, 
Where rise the monuments of ancient time, 
Pillar and pyramid, in age sublime, 
The pagan's templo and the Christian's tower. 
War's bloodiest plain and wisdom's greenest bower ; 
All that his wonder waked in school-boy themes, 
All that his fancy fired, in youthful dreams." ' 

In conformity to the act of the Congress oftho United States, entitled, 'An 
act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, 
and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times tlienin 
mentioned j' and also to an act, entitled ' An act supplementary to on act, enti- 
tled " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, 
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the 
times therein mentioned ; " and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of 
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.' 

JNO. W. DAI DS, 
Clerk of the District of Massachusitu. 



PREFACE. 



The following Letters, etc. were written by the same 
person, and originally appeared in the New England 
Galaxy, and Boston Courier ; some amendments, how- 
ever, have been made, and many, it may be, are 
required. But as the writer was indebted for some 
parts, to the journal of a friend, he cannot be responsi- 
ble for any errors but his own ; and therefore he cannot 
claim for all his sketches the authority of a guide-book. 
The articles were written merely for a newspaper, 
without thought of other publication — would that they 
were better. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 



NO. I. 

Sir— In complying with your request, I shall need 
all your indulgence. The duty of a sailor is too hard, 
and his deficiency in general knowledge too great, to 
enable him to describe well, even his own wanderings. 

My journal is but a log-book, filled with the courses 
of the winds and the aspect of the skies. It was com- 
menced in my sixteenth year, when, impelled by a thirst 
for adventure which amounted to a passion, I shipped 
myself as a green hand, for a long voyage. 

On the 22d day of April, we sailed from Boston in 
a good ship, bound for the Northwest coast of America. 
On the first day of May, a sail was discovered bearing 
down upon us from the western quarter, and in three 
hours she passed under our stern, hailing under English 
colors, as from New Providence. She was well armed 
and manned, yet, making ourselves a warlike show, we 
feigned courage, and parted company with a decided 
dislike to her countenance. 

The first land made was the island of St Anthony, 
one of the Capes de Verde. Here we took the N. E. 
1 



2 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

Trades, and were accompanied for ten days by BhosJs 
of albicore, dolphin, and bonito. Our next land was 
the little island Trinidad, uninhabited and barren. 

In Ihe parallel of Buenos Ayres, we had one of the 
gales that in winter are bo violent in these latitudes; 
and though our ship was strong, it seemed as If the arm 
of Providence must interpose to save us. A heavy sea 
swept our neat whale hoat from the larboard quarter, 
stove in the binnacle, and carried away the goat house 
with its unlucky tenant. Our fears were great, but 

they could not extinguish our sympathies for p Cap- 

ricornus, who was a favorite with us all. We saw her 
heading towards the ship and struggling hard to regain 
it, when a sea broke over, and she was seen no more. 

Between the latitudes fifty seven and Bixty south, in w in- 
ter, when there is scarcely six hours' sun, the weather is 
bad at the best; and we had storms of sleet and simw \ out 
ship was buried in the water, and in these long and dis- 
mal nights .our births were seldom dry. Yet no one 
was sick, though all were much exhausted. We u< n 
deliberating on a return to port to recruit oursi 
and refit the ship, when a gale assisted our councils, 
and carried U3, though in a rough way, so much \ 
that we could steer north in the Pacific Ocean with 
good offing from the coast. 

Being in want of wood and writer, we st< end [<, 
Massa Fuero for supplies. The boats wen sent on 
shore and returned with a report that there was much 
driftwood, but too high a surf to land at the watering 
place. A great many fish were taken with the line, and 
a goal was killed with a harpoon, which, with a tew 
greens, gave us a princely repast. We lay three days 
for the surf to subside; but we waited in vain. This 
was an unwelcome state of things, for we had few anti- 
scorbutics, and we feared that the scurvy would board 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 3 

us this side the Sandwich Islands ; yet the disease is 
delayed by a free use of water. 

The island of Massa Fuero is distant from Chili one 
hundred and twenty leagues; and from Juan Fernandez, 
twentyfive. It is lofty, and may be seen twenty leagues. 
On the hills there is a little stunted wood, and the val- 
lies are covered with tall spear grass. There are some 
fertile spots planted with vegetables, by people who 
came to hunt the seal; but the poor fur seal has become 
almost extinct since it made the acquaintance of man. 
Goats there are in large flocks, and tame enough to be 
killed with muskets. We saw, too, a few cats, some 
of them so gentle that they came up to us. The wa- 
ters around the island abound in fish, that take the 
naked hook with an avidity that would have astonished 
Izaac Walton. We left this island, which the captain 
called the Paradise of the Goats, to its own solitude, 
and on the 26th November, beheld the blue summit of 
Owyhee peeping over the clouds. 

The sight of land diffused a general joy, that was 
heightened when we discovered the rich cultivation of 
the eastern slope; we saw fields of tarro, sugar cane, 
sweet potatoes, and watermelons. In the evening we 
hauled off for Toeigh Bay, and lay under short sail 
during the night. A friend of the king came on board 
with supplies of hogs and vegetables, when we sailed 
for Woahoo, the only harbor where a ship can be safe- 
ly overhauled, and the residence of the Lord of the 
Isles. 

The Sandwich Islands are so well known, that you 
will not thank me for extracts concerning them, and 1 
am impatient to take you to the Northwest Coast, which 
is less travelled ground, and more like what is called in 
charts, terra incognita. 



I ! ITERS PROM \ >MK1M K 



But tint I may sav all that I would of any of the 
Paciiie Islands, 1 will in this letter extract from mv 
journals of several voyages; without having before mj 
- the fear of anachronism, which is a haul wont. 
», as I always |„ Kcved, the confusion of ■ 
At Woahoo, we were visited early bj a pers m whe 
oed to be of distinction, and he had written testimo- 
nials of character, rrom various mariners; though in a 
country where forgery is easy, *<\rU documents would 
raise more suspicion than confidence. 

We produced a bottle of old stingo and a tumbler <-i 
the capacity of a pint. To his comiftdes he served a 
moderate allowance, but inclined more to libera) princi- 
ples when he poured out for himself. His potation waf 
any thing but thin, yet it was swallowed in a moment of 
time, and followed by a smack of the lips, and the ejac- 
ulation of the English word 'strong.' Ha then took 
to his canoe and paddled off with the strength and 
somewhat alter the manner of an alligator. 

We had next to do the honors to Reo Reo, the sove- 
reign. W e saluted him with seven guns, for majestj n 
venerable even to a republican, though like Brutus, he 
dislike in his own country, the very name of a king. 
Reo Reo was by no means a tool, though it' a good 
life he the fruit o{' wisdom, he cannot he ranked with 

the wise, I!*- Besetting vie- was that of a ~a> 
perhaps of a monarch, intemperance. He had g 
correct notions of trade, for he glanced at goods that 
we knew he coveted in his heart, with an affectation of 
utter indifference, which manoeuvre wo met by a cor- 
responding expression of sang jfrotA It was a trial of 
cunning, but the savage was vanquished. However^ 
while somewhat in our debt he slipped away in a whale 
ship to visit his Royal Brother in the British Wands, 
where he died; and I fear without imitating Theodore 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 5 

«of Corsica, who, while in prison at London, made over 
his kingdom for the use of his creditors. 

William Pitt, who was regent in the king's absence, 
was a man of much shrewdness, and some honesty. 
Boki has less of either; I dare not call him thief, but 
I believe that he would partake of what he knew to be 
stolen. In fact, the first law of nature, with these 
people, seems to be to acquire, and theft is adopted 
readily, as the means. Yet they have certainly im- 
proved in their moral qualities since the residence of 
the missionaries. 

I was little on shore, though once I dined with a 
chief, on what he called a roasted pig; yet if the animal 
had recovered voice it would have been not to squeak 
but to bark. 

I like the Sandwich people less than the Gtaheitans, 
who are, or to me they seemed, more affable and kind. 
A Frenchman, as he names the Persians, the Parisians 
of the East, might call the Otaheitans the French of 
the South Sea. 

But the people of the Marquesas are the most beau- 
tiful of all savages. They are quite too handsome for 
my preconceptions of a cannibal. They have a Gre- 
cian precision of outline, but lack the beauty of senti- 
ment; and you would look in vain for an intellectual 
face. I remember that a whale's tooth suspended from 
the neck, is a title to distinction, and that he who has 
the largest tooth has the most honor, and feels the 
greatest pride. This is all that I can tell you of the 
Marquesas. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 



NO. II. 



Sir — I was once (1817) hound from the islands last 
mentioned to Coquimbo, when we hove to under the 
southeast side of Pitcajrn's Island, the retreat of the 
mutineers of the Bounty. We discovered a village under a 
noble grove of banyan and palm; and the inhabitants were 
seen hastening down the declivity by a circuitous path 
to the beach. I was one of five who went in a boat near 
to the shore, where the islanders stood on a projecting 
rock, making courteous signs for us to approach. But 
the surf was too high, and several of their young men 
swam off. They gave us from the water the English 
salutation, < How do you do ? ' and one of them said in a 
very pleasing manner « I will come into your boat, Sir, 
if you will permit,' but not one of the whole attempted 
to get in till he had obtained permission. Ten came in. 
and as soon as seated, asked with the utmost eagerness 
our nation, and reason for coming to their island. The 
cause of our coming we stated to be, partly to obtain 
provisions, but principally to see with our own eyes the 
innocence and happiness of their little society. 

AH were desirous to go on board, but as the sea was 
high, and the weather in their own phrase ' looked naugh- 
ty,' I limited their number to three. They decided by 
lot who should go, and the unsuccessful swam off" under 
the promise of being permitted in their turn to visit the 
ship. It was dark when we dropped anchor, and we dis- 
covered immediately after, a single man in a canoe that 
could hold but one, and which, though little better than 
a cockle shell, he managed dexterously. He came un- 
der our lee quarter, and called in a bold manner for a 
rope, by which we hauled him and his canoe on deck to- 
gether. He was not encumbered with dress, wearing 
nothing but a free mason's apron without the emblems. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 7 

In the morning a gale drove us off many leagues. Yet 
although the sea was high, our visitors showed no symp- 
toms of alarm ; but all were uneasy for the pain their 
situation, or ignorance of it, would give their friends on 
shore. Their agreeable manners and amiable disposi- 
tions made them favorites with us all : and if ever there 
was a golden age it must have produced people like 
these. I have never seen in others such natural ease of 
deportment or unhesitating boldness in speaking their 
sentiments. 

' Mr Adams ' seemed to be held by all in great ven- 
eration. Since their infancy, the good man has been 
anxiously engaged in turning their minds to good, or, in 
their own words, he has ' learnt them to love all good 
things and to hate every thing that is naughty. ' This 
last is a phrase in high favor with this Solon of the sea, 
and if the manner in which it is used shows a lack of ele- 
gance, it indicates a simplicity that belongs to innocence. 

The women, notwithstanding the assurance of Ad- 
ams, had bewailed the young men as lost when the vessel 
disappeared, and when they arrived on shore, all parties 
seemed frantic with joy. 

Our boats lay beyond the surf, and the patriarch 
brought off for the crews, a roasted pig. He requested 
our ' attention,' and said grace in a solemn manner and 
these words, ' For what we are to receive, the Lord 
make us thankful.' In the crowd standing on the cliff, 
I pointed to a couple of females who the old man said 
were his daughters, and on my expressing a desire to 
see them he waved his hand in a manner that shewed he 
had a system of signals ; for the youngest ran down the 
the slope and without waiting for the returning wave, 
plunged into the surf. She needed little aid to get on 
board, and in the same moment when she put her hand 
upon the gunwale she was seated at her father's side. 



8 LETTERS PROM A MARINER. 

Her countenance was decidedly English, and constant!) 
animated with smiles. Having received many presents, 
Hannah returned on shore, and Mr Adams consented 
to pass the night on board. 

But he could not compose himself to sleep; at every 
movement on deck, and wetacked frequently, be ran upj 
and seized a rope where his aid was little wanted, and 
cheered the sailors with the exclamations usual in haul- 
ing. Then he would return to his cabin, where ho 
was often heard in prayer. As ours was the first ship 
he had entered since the Bounty (for I think he did not 
visit Capt. Folger's), perhaps the revival of old recollec- 
tions was too strong for his philosophy, or perhaps he 
feared that we might detain him as a prisoner. My own 
private belief was that his intellect was a little disordered. 

I went on shore to see the village, and was received 
on the beach with a general ' welcome. 1 We pa 
through a grove of cocoa palms planted with regularity, 
and the broad leaves were so interlocked as to exclude 
the light of the sun, and produce a twilight at noonday] 
Had there been no birds to sing, it would have bean al- 
most dismal. The trunks were large, strait, and tall, 
and the whole grove looked like a magnificent temple of 
pillars. 

Near this is the village, divided by a swift rivulet of 
the clearest waters. The houses are of plank hewn 
from the tree, and the windows are sliding pannels. In 
the village are some noble banyan trees, which make a 
canopy that will almost exclude the rain. Some of them 
look like a pavilion, and in all it seems to a stranger 
that nature has borrowed the aid of art. The branches, 
like those of the live oak in America, extend themselves 
parallel to the earth; and when they require, from their 
distance to the trunk, a new support, a shoot like a prop 
falls to the ground, where it takes root like a new treo. 
The banyan therefore covers a great surface. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 9 

The Otaheitan women followed me wherever I went, 
with inquiries of their long lost country; for they per- 
sisted in believing that I had come last from Otaheite. 

To Adams we gave a good boat, many tools, and 
some useful books. To the young people we promised 
a supply of ' spelling books,' for Avhich they made early 
and anxious inquiries. Their desire to learn seemed 
very great. 

We received the spy-glass of the Bounty, and a few 
blank books that had been on board. We also saw the 
guns, which are visible at low water, though half de- 
voured by rust. 

I had the pleasure to receive many pressing invita- 
tions to live upon the island. I was a waif on the 
world's wide sea, and perhaps it had been better for me 
had I been here cast ashore: for even Hannah promised 
that if I would remain and teach her to read, I should have 
a house of my own, and never be called to labor in the 
'yam fields.' Other destinies led me away, but not 
without more regret than I can express, as I took leave 
of these innocent, kind, and happy islanders. 

This was more than twelve years ago, and I have 
never had a conveyance for the spelling books. I con- 
fess with sorrow that I have not sought one: if you can 
inform me of such, I will recover a little self esteem by 
sending those and better books, though they cannot re- 
store to the Islanders their lost simplicity. 



NO. III. 



On our voyage from Pitcairn's Island, we had an alarm, 
and the consternation was extreme. I had one night 



10 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 



thrown myself on a chest in the forecastle, and though 
wet to the skin, was fast asleep; when suddenly mv me- 
mory of a sailor's hardships was revived by a violent 
trembling of the ship. Then came a sound like distant 
thunder, and another shock of the vessel. All hands 
rushed on deck, and the belief was general that the -hip 
was aground. The lead was thrown, hut no bottom 
found. The shocks, however, became less fearful by fa- 
miliarity, and they occurred at intervals during two days. 
The pleasing emotions of a mariner when he first sees 
the Sandwich Islands, are different from his dark anti- 
cipations when he discovers the snow-clad mountains of 
the Northwest Coast. The land between the latitude of 
fifty and fiftyfive, north, is of moderate elevation, and 
covered completely with dense forests of hemlock, spruce, 
and fir. No cultivated fields, no towns, hamlets, or cot- 
tages enliven the prospect to a sailor as he views the 
land after a long voyage, through his trusty friend the 
telescope. It is one vast wilderness and unbroken 
solitude. 

As we drew near, we discovered a small opening, lead- 
ing to a safe passage two miles in width, which we fol- 
lowed for two leagues, and entered the good harbor of 
Newettee. Here we found an American brig, on which 
the Indians had made an attack two days before— fitt- 
ing at close quarters with their knives, till repulsed by 
part of the crew in close column, armed with long pikes. 
Many of the Indians fought when desperately wounded, 
and of the crew, two were killed and five dangerously 
hurt. 

The master resolved to have satisfaction, or at least, re- 
venge; and afterwards, when several canoes were along- 
side, and the fore deck covered with those who came to 
trade if they might, and steal if they could, the signal 
was about to be given to seize the chiefs, to be held at 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 11 

a ransom of furs. But the accidental discharge of a 
swivel disconcerted this just and liberal scheme of reta- 
liating the wrongs of the guilty, upon people who might 
be innocent. 

On the first alarm, those who were sitting on the rail 
dropped into the water like turtles, and others farther on 
board, leaped into the water with the haste of a startled 
frog. 

One chief was taken, and his ransom fixed at twenty 
skins of sea otter. After he had paid it, he paddled ashore 
with the air of a madman, plotting mischief, or rather 
planning justice and revenge. One of the crew of ano- 
ther brig, seeing a canoe passing that held some men 
who were present at the attack on the other vessel, 
edged round a swivel loaded with spikes and musket 
balls, and discharged it with so true an aim, that few 
survived in the boat to tell the death of their comrades. 

Our captain begged of another master a little girl 
seven years old, that he might restore her to her rela- 
tions, who lived northward. The child had been but a 
week on board, when we remarked a woman in a canoe 
under the stern, making signals to her, for neither knew 
the other's language. At night, being on the watch, I 
heard a splash in the water, and then the sound of a 
paddle. I skulled after in the jolly boat, as fast as I 
could, but failed to overtake the canoe, which carried 
away our little captive. 

This, with the loss of a whale boat, irritated the cap- 
tain, who resolved to be indemnified for at least his ex- 
penses. Therefore, when accident rather than justice 
favored, he began to execute his plan, little dreaming to 
what it would lead. 

A canoe from an inland tribe came alongside, manned 
with ten men, each armed with a musket, bow and ar- 
row, and dagger. The chief came boldly on board, and 



12 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

was secured in the cabin. It was offered to his com- 
rades to ransom him at twenty sea otter skins, and it 
was threatened, if the price did not forthcome, to take 
him to the north and sell him for a slave. At this trea- 
chery the Indians stared wildly, as well they might, and 
after a muttered consultation, dropped under the stern. 
The captive in the mean time was in the cabin under 
the guard of the steward, who was a strong man, and of 
the ship's tailor, who was bolder than a tailor commonly 
is. Each of these was sitting on the transom opposite 
a cabin window. The chief untied the cotsack from 
his shoulder, and with a flying leap went through the 
cabin window, which he broke with his head, and winch 
was barely wide enough for his body. In the next mo- 
ment he was seated in his boat, examining the priming 
of his musket. The crew ran to the stern with their 
arms pointed at the natives, who on this demonstration 
rose and presented theirs to us. Our captain ordered 
us not to Are, well knowing that the Indians deserved 
less punishment than praise, and in fact the brave bear? 
ing and presence of mind, in our captive, won our admi- 
ration. But unfortunately the transaction was seen on 
board another vessel, the master of which having lost a 
brother by the Indians, held them in utter hatred. He 
discharged, as the canoe passed him, a volley with such 
fatal effect, that one Indian only remained standing, 
who paddled the canoe beyond the reach of shot. Sid I 
there was another vessel to be passed, and the ferocious 
man who had occasioned all this carnage called out and 
requested that the canoe should be sunk. The master 
though he knew nothing of the quarrel, complied with 
the nefarious request. A swivel loaded wild grape un- 
discharged, the boat was riddled, and the last brave, un- 
offending, and devoted man, fell over the side. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 13 

\ 

We learned from a vessel lately arrived, that provi- 
sions commanded a good price with the Russians at 
Norfolk Sound, and thither we went. Governor Bare- 
noff purchased all our supplies for twelve thousand seal 
skins, worth at Canton twenty thousand dollars. Here 
we hauled up for several months, and contracted with 
the governor for a party of Kodiack Indians, expert 
with the bow, to hunt sea otters on the coast of Cali- 
fornia. 

The governor had the national hospitality, and hav- 
ing cellars well stored again, after a scarcity, held fre- 
quent assemblies, where each guest was expected to 
drink fairly; that is, cup for cup with the man in office. 
This point was never waved, as an idle ceremony, but 
entered so much into the governor's hospitable feel- 
ings, that none had independence to refuse compliance. 
Hot punch was the liquor to which we sacrificed con- 
science on the altar of complaisance, and I know men 
who there contracted habits of intemperance that have 
destroyed them. 

This settlement is called Sitka, and is placed at the 
bottom of a deep bay, with anchorage for any number of 
ships. The country is in barren ridges, covered two- 
thirds of the year with snow. 



NO. IV. 



Sir — Our hunters amounted to two hundred and four 
Kodiack and Onalaschan Indians, and we had, beside, 
four Russian families. Their food perfftmed the ship. 
It was herring and whale's blubber, though for luxuries 
they served out whortleberries saturated with train oil ; 
2 



14 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

and I have known the Russians reject a dinner of ship's 
provision for these dainties. 

In fourteen days we anchored off tho island Catalina 
five leagues from the coast of California. The hunt- 
ers took to the canoes, and crossed over to the main, and 
we followed with the ship. The Mission of Saint Ga- 
briel is fiReen leagues from the coast, hut a corporal's 
guard is stationed on shore to give notice of arrivals 
The missions are twenty or thirty miles asunder, and 
are little else than stations for trade. The Padres are 
very kind and honest men. There are about twenty 
or thirty Spaniards at each station, and perhaps live 
hundred Indians. These are converted in summary 
way, for when other argument fails, the bastinado pro- 
duces instant conviction. 

Hunters are sent out and the natives are brought in 
at the horse's tail. They are caught like other wild 
cattle, by the lazo, or a noose dexterously thrown over 
them from a distance. They soon become attached to 
the Padres and acquire habits of industry. Thse In- 
dians are a gentle race very unlike the trihes of the 
north, which are warlike and cruel. In the north the 
natives are cunning, deceitful, and vindictive, never for- 
getting offence, but in the blood of the offender. They 
are active in the chase, and with a musket, the befit of 
marksmen. They have small eyes, high check bones 
and the general aspect of a Tartar. Their appearance 
supports, the belief that all animals constitute a chain, 
and that there is no link between the least intellectual 
savage, and the most intelligent monkey. 

Unlike most savages they care little for ornament, 
though heads and shells are often worn. The females, 
jn aid of their natural charms, practice the arts of the 
toilet. They paint their faces in bright fanciful colors, 
and the under lip is rolled over a piece of wood which 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 15 

rests upon the chin. About Columbia River many of 
the females are handsome as far as shape and feature 
constitute beauty. 

The dress, along the whole coast, is a blanket thrown 
over the shoulders, and secured by a string in front. 
Sometimes I have seen shoes, stockings, and a hat, but 
never on the same person. I have seen also a chief in 
a marine's coat, but then he had no other garment. 

I much desire to see a colony at Columbia River. 
The colonists, if from New England, would find a better 
climate than they would leave, and a soil easy and fer- 
tile to a great degree. They would find large meadows 
fit for immediate g azing, and fish enough for an army. 
I have bought at Columbia River for five leaves of tobac- 
co a salmon large enough to feast the whole corporation 
when the most hungry. The navigation is difficult, as 
the channel of the river changes ; but two pilots would 
be able to take up all ships in safety. 

At this time the penalties against trade with foreign- 
ers, were so high as to defeat their object. In fact 
every man was a smuggler, and the law a dead letter. 
The military commandant himself brought down his cat- 
tle for sale, and from these we chose thirty that would 
have been called good even at Brighton. But the salt 
(to use a mild term) was execrable and we had fears 
that it would not preserve the beef. 

The Spaniards now, for the first time, discovered our 
hunters darting about in the bay, and the discovery gave 
them no pleasure, for which we cared little, as we did 
not go there to please the Spaniards. The commandant 
recommended a departure, and as no water was to be 
had, we gratified him, and went to Catalina for supplies 
Here we found a few huts occupied by people so shy 
and genteel that they ran away from us. The men 
were naked as truth, but the women had aprons of mat- 



16 LETTERS I'ROM A MAIUNER. 

ting. Their hair was worn after the fashion of a pitch 
mop, and had Borne resemblance also to a crow's Best* 
Their bodies were glazed with filth and their ugliness 
such, that they would have hcen thought plain in an 
assembly of Hottentots. In fact they were the lowest 
and most rusty link 1 had ever seen, in the chain of 
mankind. 

Having filled otar casks at a fountain of the purest 
Waters that ran swiftly across the beach and that I 
dream of to this day when alhirst and asleep , w sailed 
for the P,c.y of Saint Quentin. This was our head (gar- 
ters for hunting ; and our tirst duty, and \ on mav be SUM 
it was also our pleasure, was to discharge the Russians 
and Indians from the ship; which by washing, scraping. 
liming and fumigation, we rendered habitable. W. 
next examined the good Californian beef, which had not 
taken the salt, and was spoiled. To he thus deprived of 
prog disturbed our equanimity; such is the dependence 
of mind upon matter. 

Southeast from the anchorage fourteen leagues, and 
from the continent two and an half, is Rock Re don do; 
and as the hunters found man) otter in the vicinity, this 
was the place of deposit for skins. The rock produced 
no water, and we had to send weekly supplies for two 
hundred and fifty men. -^ 

Six leagues northward from our anchorage, and not 
far inland, are saline ponds which afford jarge quanti- 
ties of salt, and I was one of the cr< w thai wenl up to 
them for supplies. At night we arrived at the ponds and 
slept under a tent made of oars and sails. In the morn- 
ing, as I was removing the rent, I saw something stirring 
in the folds, which was a rattle snake live feet long and 
large enough to swallow a eat. He was the largest I 
had seen, furnished with th, and a rattle lit 

for a watchmartv We killed about twenty more upon 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 17 

the coast. We never found them inclined to attack, but 
always ready to defend, and like a good soldier to die 
upon the spot they occupied; in this we willingly indulg- 
ed their humor, and praised while we pounded them. 
Having gathered our salt, which we found in hard cakes, 
we made an excursion up the country. The vallies 
were covered with flowers of a thousand hues, but the 
hills were bare. It was like walking in a flower garden, 
and we strode along with an elevation of spirits hard to 
be conceived by one who has not escaped from a cargo 
of blubber, and two hundred Kodiack passengers. We 
remarked that the country was stocked with game, for 
we saw geese, ducks, curlews, hares, foxes, and deer. 
Our next excursion was to Rock Redondo. Our boat 
was decked over, and rather too large for oars. When 
the wind was northeast, we could run down in seven 
hours, but were sometimes seventy in making a return. 
On the course back we had a quarter of beef fresh, a 
few small fish, eight pounds of bread, a little tea and su- 
gar and twelve gallons of water, for a crew of five. In 
the morning our beef had become so much tainted, 
that we gave it to the sharks. We had worked to 
windward ten miles when there came a dead calm, and 
though we had but four fish and the bread, we made a 
good breakfast in the hope of a breeze. Noon came 
and night succeeded, and like Don Juan, we were stilj 
becalmed. On the next day came the breeze after we had 
so long whistled for it, and scratched upon the mast; and 
at sunset we saw the high lands back of the bay. In the 
evening it was calm again, but there was a heavy swell 
of the sea, and a strong current setting to the south. In 
the morning a thick fog enveloped us, and when it rose 
we could see nothing but sea and sky. Our hunger was 
appeased by the stronger force of anxiety. Our boat 
was too high to be managed by oars in so great a swell, 
2* 



18 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 



and we watched for a breeze as the convict waits for 
a reprieve. It curried us in sight of land, only to have 
us again in the current. We Were exhausted with hun- 
ger and fatigue, and hope died away within us. 

There came at last a slight breeze and wo started 
over our ballast, and a tub and stones, that made the fire 
place, till the oilice of cook became a sinecure. The 
wind then came freshly from the southwest, and as we 
never after or before knew it to come from that quarter, 
it seemed sent to preserve us. 



NO. V. 



Sir — I crave your indulgence to a few more extracts 
from my journal in California, and firstly of the island 
Ceros. It is ten leagues from the continent, mountain- 
ous and barren, though the hunters reported some ral- 
lies of great beauty and perpetual verdure. It abounds 
in deer, of which we took many, and venison 'finer or 
fatter ' was never lifted on a fork. 

The English ships once used to come here to take 
the sea elephant for his oil. We found the animals 
wherever we landed, and murdered two of the weight of 
fifteen hundred pounds. The bodies were ten feet in 
length, and as large in girth as the ox Columbus. They 
resemble the sea lion in all things but the proboscis that 
supplies their name. On land they are clumsy, but few 
animals move faster through the water. When attacked 
on shore, they raised themselves on the hinder legs, 
throwing their bodies forward to meet the assailant; and 
as the mouth is open and well garnished with ivory, 
close quarters are not the safest. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 19 

At Ceros we threw out our wood that was old and 
dry. It was filled with worms, and we feared that for 
change of fare they would take to a fresh beam, for 
they used their gimblets dexterously, boring the timber 
as much, almost, as — I am boring you. 

On the night before we were to sail, five of the crew 
deserted in the jolly boat, and it was believed that they had 
gone to the main, but they were less wise. An Indian 
afterwards informed us that there was a boat sunk with 
stones, on the northern part of the island. We had great 
need of their service, but they kept out of the reach of pro- 
cess. In fact at this time the whole crew was dissatis- 
fied. The captain had sold his bread at Norfolk Sound, 
and had neglected on the hunting voyage to get a sup- 
ply. Boiled wheat was our substitute for the staff of 
life; and the sailors thought it was 'not fit for hogs,' 
though in my own opinion, it was. We had no vegeta- 
bles, and our beef would have amazed a Cossack. Bet- 
ter fare however was on board, and this justly exasperat- 
ed the crew. Good beef was sliced in the cabin, and 
delicious venison hung under the awning on the quarter 
deck. This" was too much for human nature, when hun- 
gry, to bear ; and the five hands who deserted, had 
adroitly passed into the boat a prime saddle of venison, 
upon which they feasted on shore. 

They might have denied their Saviour, and the cap- 
tain would have forgiven it ; but in taking his venison, 
they pricked him where he was more sensitive, and he 
threatened all hands with the rope unless the offender 
stood forth, in which case he promised amnesty and obli- 
vion. Everything was reconciled, for the culprits con- 
fessed the fact, and pleaded hunger in mitigation. Yet 
the captain was overheard to threaten punishment when 
he got into ' blue water,' and this idle menace, never meant 
to be executed, was the cause of their flight. They 



20 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

gave up three hundred dollars each, which was due lo 
them as wages, encountered a thousand hardship*, and 
perhaps died 6f famine, rather than be degraded by 
corporal punishment. 

In summer there arc few rains in California, but for 
a while the plants are motstened by copious 'I 
then conns 'the star, the yellow leaf,' drought, fagj 
and fire. From August to December, the earth is 
parched and cracked, the streams are evaporated, and 
the cattle dead or mad, with drought. Alter, the prel of 
March, vegetation is so rapid, that it si ems like the 
shifting of a scene at the theatre. 

The manner in which our hunters took the sea otter, 
was various. The animals are shy, and must, therefore, 
be struck from a distance. They were sometimes hit 
with a barbed spear attached to a line and bladder : and 
an Indian seldom misses his otter at eight rods. lie 
kills it also with muskets and catches it in traps. In 
this sport the Indians arc very zealous, and the chase 
in a canoe is not without its attractions. 

Now, Sir, imagine meat Mazatlan, in Mexico, near 
the entrance to the gulf of California. The town is 
small, and about thirty miles from the port. From this 
I went on the top of a mule to Rosario, iiitv miles ; 
through a country covered with bushes, in a path just 
wide enough tor the mule, but too narrow for the rider, 
among the sharp thorns by the way-side. There « 
but Jive huts on the way, and at ail i obtained milk. 
Yet the soil is rich, and the vegetation so vigorous that 
the vines and bushes are almost impenetrable. 

Rosario has about eight thousand people and sil- 
ver mines that are rich, and have been extensively 
worked; but the first veins have been exhausted, and 
the miners basing little science, have no) discovered 
others. Two or three hundred mules, however, were 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 21 

engaged in the mines. Excavations have been made 
under the town, which, like Paris and Rome, has it cata- 
combs; but in a country where earthquakes are com- 
mon, it is not prudent thus to dig the grave of a city, 
lest the first shock might complete the burial. These 
mines were discovered by a shepherd, who found in the 
morning under the ashes of his evening fire, many drops 
of pure silver, for he had made his camp upon a rich 
bed of ore, and like Martin Waldeck, converted his 
brands to precious metals. 

On my return to Mazatlan, a Chinese, (whom sailors 
call. a Chinaman), gave me such language that I tapped 
him with a crabstick, and he walked away making vows 
to the Furies. On (he same day I went out after game., 
and was warned that Achong, with pistols and knife, was 
hunting me. I came back by the house of the com- 
mandant who gave me a file of soldieis to seize the 
Chinese, and carry him aboard. We took him from a 
crowd of Spaniards. He had two double barreled pis- 
tols loaded and bearing the mark of Don Ludovico Tira- 
de, my very good Spanish friend who wished- me out of 
his way. The pistols I determined to keep ; but going 
ashore I was captured myself, and forced to surrender 
them for ransom. The Don's brother, however, recon- 
ciled us, whereupon we shook hands, and (as Le Sage 
says,) have hated each other ever since. 

At about this time, as the weather, in seaman's phrase, 
looked ugly, the ship put out to sea, to have room 
enough to ride. I, however, was on shore and happened 
to be at a house where there were five or six ladies, with 
the commandant. At noon corr.mmen'-.ed a fresh gale, 
which in two hours was a hurricane: and^at three o'clock, 
a brig and a schooner were driven upon the rocks. Our 
house was near the beach, shaded by a large tree of 
iron wood, but in other respects exposed to the gale. In 



22 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

a few minutes the tree was stripped of every branch, 
and nothing but the trunk remained. A large house 
was unroofed in our rear, and the walls lefi standing at 
an unstable angle. — Half of our own roof was carried 
away by an invisible agent, and the house itself reeled 
as if about to fall, or share the fate of the holy one of 
Loretto. 

There were pale faces in our garrison. The ladies 
invoked the saints, principally Saint Anthony, and when 
the sea broke its bounds and came roaring towards the 
house, the coolest of us thought, with the vanquished 
monarch, that all was lost but honor. We took advan- 
tage of a momentary respite of the tempest to evacuate 
the post and shelter ourselves under a wall. A sailor 
soon came from the stranded schooner, dripping like a 
river god, and bearing a bag of dollars. 

Three days passed without tidings of our vessel, but 
on the fourth she entered the harbour. The crew had 
taken in their sail in time, but in the hardest puff of the 
gale, fearing that she could not survive upon her broad- 
side, attempted to set the foretopmast staysail to «et her 
before the wind; yet the sail was instantly torn from the 
rope. They next endeavoured to pay her off with tar- 
paulins in the fore rigging, but in vain, for she lay two 
hours with her gunwale under water. The jolly boat 
was swept from the stern, and the whale boat forced 
up against the davits, and by the power of the wind 
alone, broken into fifty pieces. In ploughing the seal 
for twenty years from the time when I write, 1 have had 
rough weather, but have never known a tempest half as 
violent as this. 

This is all that is noted in my journal at Mazatlaa, ex- 
cept the nature of the circulating medium received by 
us in payment; that is ten bars of silver, each weighing 
seventy pounds, at eighteen dollars the pound. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 23 



No. VI. 

Sir — Imagine us now sailing from Mazatlan, south- 
east, along the shore. The country is covered with 
forests, and we saw many cocoa palms. There is little 
anchorage, and so high is the surf that there is no safety 
in landing with a boat. The coast is flat, but six miles 
inland is a high ridge of mountains, and we saw the vol- 
cano Apanaca, shooting up to a great height its pyra- 
mid of flame. We saw huts, and villages of huts. We 
discovered but one man, and he was running abreast 
with us, as a dog chases a bird, or the shadow of a bird. 
At last he gave it over, and sat down under a palm 
tree, having fatigued himself before he could tire the 
ship. 

The first port we arrived at was Sonsonate ; the 
town, however, is six miles from the port. It is a place 
of little trade, for all the commerce centres at Guate- 
mala, distant fifty leagues. 

The surface of society was not calm : the people 
had too much of a good thing; they had so much liberty 
that they were free from some useful restraints. Their 
prayer to Saint Anthony for a breeze had been answer- 
ed by a hurricane. 

The town has about twelve thousand souls, that is, 
people. It is near a river, and as near to a volcano as 
Naples is to Vesuvius. The mountain throws out ashes 
and cinders, and at some shocks I felt the ground trem- 
ble under my feet; but the people live in the same fan- 
cied security that men feel in the plague. On our re- 
turn to the ship, the boat was overset in the surf, and all 
of us ducked, but no one damaged. 

Our next anchorage, after a sail of twentyfour days, 
was Guayaquil. It is on the river of that name, fifty 



24 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

miles from the sea. The streets are at righj angles, 
the houses built on piers, and the city itself is ultout two 
miles long on the river. The lower rooms arc ware 
houses, and the people a mixed race) live in the upper 
stories. Guayaquil has many advantages, and might 
easily be made beautiful; there are noble houses, and 
there is a wharf fhe. whole extent of the city. Yet in 
the rainy season the streets are filled with water, and 
peopled with innumerable hosts of frogs, of win 
said in Alabama) there are seventy bushels to the acre, 
with alligators enough to fence them in. I n<l<r a good 
police, however, this city might be an agreeable resi- 
dence, for though nearly under the line, the thermome- 
ter seldom rises above eighty degrees, and notwith- 
standing the filth and stagnant water, it is not unhealthy. 

We made a short excursion into the country, with 
guns in hand; partly it was made in a canoe, which in 
several narrow creeks roused the alligators from their 
lethargy on land, and many of them fifteen feet in length, 
took their ' sullen plunge ' into the water. 

We saw deer on the bank, but they were too shy for 
a shot; and we saw also, on our return, the summit of 
Chimborazo. 

Our next movement was to Paita, a town of four thou- 
sand people, chiefly Indians. The houses are of 
bamboo, plastered with mud: the port is the best on 
the coast, and there is some trade, though the merchants 
live at Pura, distant fourteen leagues. I lived ashore, 
shooting pigeons and grey squirrels, and when we de- 
parted for Callao, I had gained in weight and comeli- 
ness. I should have told you, however, before, that the 
master was my relation, and made my duty light. 

The coast to Callao is sterile enough for an Arab; 
for hundreds of miles there is scarcely a tree or shrub. 
The air we breathed was a thick fog, though we could 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 25 

take the sun at noon. In the port of Callao nothing 
was visible, and but for the ship belis we should hardly 
have known ourselves to be in harbor. 

I went up to Lima for a day-, and made a lodgment in 
the French Coffee House. At Lima my journal is a 
blank, and I can only tell you from recollection, that the 
city is kept remarkably clean by streams of water, con- 
ducted through the streets; and that the buildings are 
generally but of one story, for the earthquakes are too 
formidable for elevated houses. 

The complexion of the ladies inclines to the olive, and 
in walking they hide with their mantle all their face but 
one eye, though this is so brilliant that it may be felt. 
The dress fits close to the body, and would not be tol- 
erated in the United States; and perhaps it is to hide 
their blushes, or the want of them, that the ladies cover 
their faces. 

From Callao I returned to Guayaquil, and there took 
passage for Panama. This is a walled city, and was 
once of great strength. The walls, in the most exposed 
points, are twentyfive feet high, and of equal thickness. 
On the bomb proof battery are many huge pieces of 
brass ordnance, weighing from four to six tons. One 
only is mounted, and that in so bad a plight, that I 
should not like to apply the match. The streets are 
neater than at Guayaquil, but. the number of deserted 
and crumbling houses give to Panama a character of 
desolation. 

From this we made dispositions to cross the Isthmus, 
and on the seventh of September despatched six mules 
before us, with baggage. In four hours we followed, 
and found the mules and baggage waiting at a farm 
house. The muleteers were making merry, and cared 
less for our remonstrance than for the braying of their 
©wn mules. At last we set off, and one of the fellows, 
3 



26 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

whom I had pre-judged a scoundrel, felt an inclination 
to bathe in a fresh rivulet; and this delayed us another 
hour. I pretended to much equanimity, taking, in the 
saddle, a lunch of bread and cheese. 

The mule is obstinate, in the proverb, but this is in- 
justice to the muleteer, who has a stronger claim to the 
same kind of distinction. 

Having crossed a mountain torrent, the mad became 
so bad that we advanced but a mile and a half an BOOT. 
Here we gave the muleteers a glass of brandy, and it 
was a great stride towards their friendship. At two 
o'clock we came to a farm house, where the muleteers 
began to unload for the night, and we took it quietly, as 
remonstrance was a vain thing. On the next day we 
travelled in the worst of roads: in comparison, the dry 
bed of a mountain torrent was a Macadamized Btreet. 
At first, we dismounted at a perilous pass, but soon 
learned to commit ourselves with confidence to the dis- 
cretion of the mules. 

At last, (for all things may be done by toil,) -we arriv- 
ed at Cruzes, on the river Chagres, a little town win-re 
travellers and topers arc so few, that there is do inn for 
the pleasure of the one, or the accommodation of the 
other. The town has a population of two thousand ne- 
groes and inulattoes. It is seven leagues from Panama, 
in a charming situation, and with as rich a soil as was 
ever tilled or neglected. 

To the muleteers we gave fortythree dollars, and for 
a canoe with lour hands, to descend the river, twenty 
dollars more. Our bill at the house where we lodged 
was only sixteen dollars, for the lady expressed a reluc- 
tance to be hard with strangers. The fiver, in descend- 
ing, affords the finest views: the high banks were 
covered with various tropical plants, and there wis a 
frequent succession of Indian villages. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 27 

Chagres, which is an Indian town, is the most filthy 
place I ever beheld; yet I had seen Eisbon, and lately 
been at Guayaquil. The castle is on a high point, and 
completely defends the town. 

There are about fifteen hundred people, and (I love 
a sweeping clause) all idle, ignorant, bigoted, inhospi- 
table, and dishonest. Their situation, if not to their 
taste, accords well with their merits. . The streets, 
which are gutters, are replenished by eternal rains, and 
endless are the armies of rats, mice, lizards, and stinging 
and buzzing insects. At night, the rats devoured for us, 
one hat, half a fiddle, one' shoe, a cravat, an umbrella, a 
bundle of letters, and a peck of oranges. Human life 
is hardly safe from such vermin — human comforts van- 
ish before them. 

Here, Sir, ends the first voyage of Sindbad the Sailor; 
will you have the other five ? 



NO. VII. 

Sir — My second voyage was in a good ship laden 
with dollars, from Boston to Calcutta, and in this voy- 
age, and in those that grew out of it, I shall describe 
larger cities, and more interesting modes of life and 
death. 

Paulo inajora canamus, as our old schoolmaster used 
to say when he struck up ' Old Hundred.' 

On the 4th day of November, in the year 1 8 — , we 
took wing, (our good ship vindicates the figure,) and 
passed swiftly out of the harbor. The first night I 
have recorded as the darkest I ever knew, for with such 
things must one fill a sea bouk. Few are the adven- 



28 LETTERS FROM A MARI.NF.lt. 

tures of a voyager that can interest a landsman, though 
a small thing may create an excitement en board. 
Every thing- is relative, even glory itself, as you may 
see from the following extract frortj the log book; and 

the mate had not even a faint conception of what edi- 
tors call iroriy. 

'Our sail-maker, Peter CTlson, a native of Copenha- 
gen, this day, at four hours thirty minutes, 1'. M., com- 
pleted a new foresail, which he lias performed t<» the 
satisfaction of all parties concerned, and in a maimer 
that reflects on himself the greatest credit.' Suoh is 
the 'bubble, reputation,' yet I hope to share the <ail- 
makcr's fame by recording it, .as Quintius Curthia is, t<» 
this day, remembered in connexion with Alexander. 

Our commander had a lace ;is grave as Garrick'fl 
between tragedy and comedy, or a more humble actor's 
on a slender benefit; yet he had an invincible propensi- 
ty to waggery, and was very inventive of practical jokes, 
some of which fell heavily upon me. lie was a good 
man, faithful to his friend, and fond of his bottle: though 
his fondness predominated over his fidelity. As it was 
his custom to throw over his flasks as last as they were 
emptied, which happened at short intervals, he was 
reported by the captain of another ship, who knew OUM 
and the master, by the chain of bottles. This is some- 
what after the mode of the Kennehunkers in tin West 
India trade, who drop shingles as they go out, that they 
may find tin; way home by tracing them back. 

Our captain watched as narrowly as the youngest on 
board, for means and incidents to give an impulsi 
time, and to vary our monotonous life. Some d< 
feud had arisen between tin rladagascar negro, 

and the steward, a Lascar; though 'it was as if this 
mouth should tear this hand, lor lifting food to't.' The) 
desired a combat, and the captain gave his permise 



LETTERS FROM A. MARINER. 29 

and pistols, Anger was a little mollified by fear, but 
shame opposed a pacification. The crew were called, 
the mate loaded the pistols, and the captain, after re- 
commending their souls to mercy, gave the signal. Both 
parties, at the report, leaped a yard from the deck, and 
the Lascar, being spattered with red ink, was made to 
believe himself wounded, and was afterwards humbled 
when reminded of it; though he protested against fight- 
ing with cranberries. Thus, with a stiff breeze, and 
relaxed discipline, we went on our way rejoicing. 

One night I was roused from sleep by" the voice of 
the captain calling down curses upon something un- 
known and dreaded; when I entered the cabin, he had 
struck a light, and was dressing a large flying fish. It 
had entered the quarter port hole, while he was asleep, 
and by its coldness to the touch, perplexed and alarmed 
the worthy man, who, to this day, dislikes to be remind- 
ed of his consternation. 

In the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope, we took, 
with the hook and line, several web footed cape pi- 
geons, and in the same way an albatross, of twenty 
pounds, with wings of eleven feet. He straggled like 
a haddock, but we landed him on deck. It was as good 
as trout fishing, though the flesh was tough, tasteless, 
and dry. 

Sometimes we gave a furlough to the geese, who take 
to the water with alacrity, every one the moment he 
was loose, divings to a great depth; with the intent, as I 
suppose, of finding gravel, whereupon I pounded shells 
as a substitute, which they devoured eagerly. In every 
vessel there should be carried gravel for the poultry. 

One night, as the mate was chasing the cook with a 

rope's end, to give him what Ben in the play calls ' a salt 

eel for his supper,' the man of the fryingpan jumped 

overboard, while the ship was walking five knots. He 

3* 



30 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

grasped, however, the fore sheet, and alter he had re- 
ceived several duckings, we boused him in, for he did 
not Relinquish his hold upon life, or the rope; not always 
synonymous term-;. 

At the mouth of the Hoogly, we took an English 
pilot tor Calcutta. The stream is muddy, and runs 
about four knots an h«ur; it lias a lew islands, and 1 re- 
member only that of Saugre, at the month. Il< re it was 
that poor Monroe was carried off by a tiger, as he sat 
eating with his companions; the beast was immedi- 
ately shot, but too late to save his prey. 

At Calcutta, I had been about live minutes ashore, 
when I was nabbed by a police officer, who gaye me 
in charge to an armed Sepoy; who carried me three 
miles into the country, as a juror on a poor GJentoo, 
who had killed himself feloniously . He had be< n much 
involved in debt, owing three rupees, I about a dollar 
and a half) which he could never hope I -It 

sunk into his spirits, and he did what Cato, whom he 
had never heard of, had done before bun. 

The variety of people seen in the streets is amusing; 
there are Turks, Persians, Chinese, Africans, Malaya, 
Englishmen, and others. As many operations are car- 
ried on in the open air as at Naples, and jugglers are 
as busy as Punch at the Carnival. The barb* r £ 
round looking in faces for a beard, though he made no 
discoveries in mine; the sufferer sits down upon his 
hams, and he that shaves performs his duty well. 

The jugglers frequently have a 1 >;i_ and 

sometimes a Cobra di Capelto, with an eve 'hat, as 
Hamlet says, means mulling mail/echo. Others have 
goats well trained to balance themselves on a small 
round of wood, and Capricorn is elevated by additional 
rounds, till he is several feet from the ground; where 
he stands like a republican in ollice, at the mercy of the 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 31 

first man who will give his supporters a kick. Some- 
times the jugglers have tall ladders, which they will so 
balance as to go up on one side, and down on the other; 
and the captain saw one, who drew up the ladder after 
him, but this, Sir, I never saw. 

There is a large commonwealth of kites, among 
which, as with the Spartans, it is not dishonorable to 
steal. They will plunder a basket of provisions, car- 
ried on the head, though I know not that they ( will lift 
a turban, as related imthe Arabian Nights; yet they are 
so unjust and bold, that they will pounce upon a fish 
when hauled by a line from the water. 

But the queerest of birds is the adjutant, five feet 
high, and of a melancholy, gentlemanlike aspect. He 
has blue wings faced with white, a white vest, buff 
breeches, and a tuft of black upon his cap. You may 
see a regiment in line, on the long roofs, where they 
make a show as formidable as the Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery Company. However, like that grave 
body, they understand not all the stratagem of war, 
They are voracious as ostriches, and I have seen the 
mischievous soldiers throw them a bone to pick, filled 
with powder and furnished with a slow match; and the 
poor adjutant is blown up while taking his comfort; 
even like our Madagascar cook, into whose pipe I in- 
troduced, at times, a little nitre. 

In my next, I will tell you of the sacrifice of a young 
widow to the manes of her lord; whereas the females 
in your own christian city,- are often immolated while 
the husband lives. 



32 LETTERS FROM A MABINKR. 



No. VIII. 

Sir — JVTm cuwia coniingii ttdin Calcuttam — thai is 3 
you have aever had the good fortune t<> see Calcutta, 
permit me to say something of it. 

The (lunate, at the time of our arrival, realized my 
anticipations of the fine air of tin- tropics, though a few 
days were warm enough t<> be called hot. < hi t 
days, at noon, it was po time for a race, but the morn- 
ing and evening were delicious, 'i he mechanical ait of 
breathing, which in New England is l>ut a negative - 'it 
of satisfaction, and in a fog, oppn ssive, seemed in Cal- 
cutta to he a positive pleasure. 1 remember that we 
had, in our long train of retainers, an Ethiopian who 
had passed his lite under the line, and who Was there- 
fore tanned as dark as Erebus. 1 one day beh< Id him 
sleeping on a sand hank under a sun that would ! 
roasted an egg. When the shade of a building fell upon 
his leg, he seemed uneasy; hut when the shadow cover- 
ed his body, he was roused by the chill, and rolled him- 
self into the sun. At this time 1 w as peeled to the skin, 
and barely kept myself from melting, like a tallow can- 
dle, by sipping iced water. There is a very comforta- 
ble machine, above the dinner table, called a punkah, 
by which several hu^e fans are ke] t in motion by an at- 
tendant, who pulls the string. This creates a hn ■< 
and scatters the (lies. 

The servant to whom the administration of the pun- 
kah is committed, has no Other duty to do or sutler; for 
with the native, exertion is Buffering, The distinction 
of castes, which is as exclusive a- m your aristocratic 
city, seems to have been devised as a division of toil, 
where all are indolent. This distinction of classes, how- 
ever, is hard to be broken; and so severely does a uu- 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 33 

tive feel the ' loss of caste,' that he will retrieve it by 
some bodily suffering, though I aver not that I have 
seen the ceremony I am about to describe. A tall pole 
is erected, with a line hanging from the top, and to this 
is attached an enormous hook, large enough for a shark. 
This is forced under some of the muscles in the back of 
him who has lost, and would retrieve, his caste; and he 
is whirled round in^a circle till his guilt is expiated, and 
he stands ' redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled.' 
This includes more than the definition of angling — ' a 
rod and line, with a worm at one end and a fool at the 
other;' for here is a fool at each end. 

But it would, be an endless task to describe the Hin- 
doo superstitions, and the tenacity of their hold upon the 
mind. One of their customs is, to throw the dead into 
the river, and th.e bodies are eaten by fishes and carrion 
crows. Life is sometimes left when the body is commit- 
ted to the stream. Our captain once picked up an old 
man, who was thought by his relations, to ' have lived 
long enough/ though his life was prolonged a week on 
board the ship. 

One wretched man, suffering under the hydrophobia, 
was carried to the bank to die. The convulsions occa- 
sioned by the vicinity of the water, were horrible to see. 
He died, and the widow resolved to burn. According- 
ly, time and place were appointed, and the place was 
Barnagore, three miles from the city. Thither I went, 
under the operation of the feeling that led a Roman ma- 
tron to the amphitheatre, and that leads a Spanish lady 
to the circus. The crowd was not so large as a similar 
sacrifice would collect in Boston, where I fear it would 
be difficult to find a widow who would hear reason in 
the way of burning. It is true, that she might blaze 
before the public, but then she would burn only for a 
second husband. Excuse a pun, sir, for I am told that 



34 LETTERS FROM A MARI.M.U. 

you sometimes make one yourself. This Hindoo cus- 
tom, however, has its advantages; making wives tender, 
who would otherwise be ternngant, and upholding affec- 
tion with the strong arm of self-preservation; for the fu- 
neral pile in the perspective of the conjugal pi< ture, is 
apt to remind the wife, to take a revert nd care of the 
health and comforts of the husband. 

At five o'clock arrived the official permission for the 
rites of Moloch. It was announced by an inferns| veil 
from the natives, and I shuddered to hear it, as when I 
lately heard the roar of (he pit and gallery, and of the 
blackguards in the boxes, at an indecent allusion on the 
stage. When you next hear the same roar, \vt the of- 
fenders feel the insulted majesty of the press. 

The widow, who was pretty and young, descended, 
when the shout subsided, from her palankeen, led by an 
accursed priest. She was dressed, as a victim should 
be, in white. She walked into the river, and, when she 
came out, put on a more splendid dress. When her 
child had put a bit of cake into her mouth, she walked 
three times round the pile, scattering boiled rice, which 
was picked up by those ill omened en ws, the priests, 
and her relations. Then she threw into the air a nose- 
gay, or a bough, and mounted the pile with alacrity, and 
a smile upon her lace. She laid herself by the side of 
her husband, throwing her arms about his neck. Two 
poles were passed over the bodies, after the manner of 
a lever, and a hound of a priest Bat upon one" end of each 
pole. Then her unnatural relations covered the body 
with dried reeds, and her son, aged six years, applied 
the torch. 

In a moment, the pile was in a blaze. I was very 
near to it, but saw no struggling in the woman, i icept 
the contraction of her arms around the neck of husband. 
Her features, while I could see them, were not distort- 
ed, but the froth gathered at her mouth. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 35 

I returned to the city in a palankeen, which is aifery 
pleasant vehicle, though at first apt to remind the stran- 
ger of his coffin. You have seen it caricatured on the 
stage in Boston, but the veritable Bengal palankeen you 
will find only in Salem. The bearers go off briskly in 
a dog trot, at about four miles and a half an hour. They 
are beasts of burden only; for, from the distinction of 
caste, or some other reason, they will not draw. We 
had in our employment eighteen, and they were ordered 
to take a chaise to another part of the city. They 
would not draw it, but contrived a way to carry it on 
poles. 

If you would see all the dresses, and many of the pro- 
ductions, of the East, visit at Salem the Museum of the 
East India Marine Society. It is a noble collection, 
and is one among many of the advantages of the India 
trade .to Salem. This trade from the United States was 
commenced by Mr Derby — 

' Clarum et venerabile nomen,' 
a man who led the way to the wealth of the Indies, and 
laid a noble foundation for the honor and fortunes of his 
descendants. The Marine Society is composed of 
weather-beaten and storm-proof captains or supercar- 
goes, who have doubled the southern cape of Africa or 
America. For several years there was a procession 
and dinner, but the ridicule of the press has ended the 
processions, while the dinner is wisely retained. The 
procession was as good as Abolition itself, which it 
resembled, as much as Asia is like unto Africa. The 
officers had mandarin cloaks, and other oriental garbs, 
and the man that attends in the museum was robed like 
a Chinese, and carried a tail like a streamer, sweeping 
the ground. The palankeen was borne by four blacks, 
in trowsers and turbans. A boy sat within, dressed like 
a nabob, and another, like a slave, carried the hooka by 



36 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

his side. The hooka is an enormous pipe, with a long 
flexible tube, that resembles ;i snake. Th »e _ • <1 old 

times are over, the exhibition discontinued, and a Salem 
mariner is apt to look grave when the procession ifl men- 
tioned, and to watch an opportunity t«> change the con- 
versation. 

The English in India have, as at home, a passion fofl 
the chase, and magnificent are the field sports of the 
East. The daring of the hunters is almost beyond be- 
lief. Putnam, with the wolf, was engaged in children's 
play; for in Bengal more than one similar pursuit oi ;i 
tiger is recorded. I once saw an officer with a limp in 
his gait, who had been wounded in hunting the royal 
tiger. The elephant on which he rode bad given lb* 
game so rude a reception with his tusk, that the hunter 
supposed him dead, and leaped down without fear. Hut 
the death was a feline artifice, and the tiger seized the 
poor hunter by the thigh, slung him over his shoulder. 
and carried him oil* as a fox takes away a goose. The 
officer had two pistols in his belt; with the firsj he b 
a rib of the beast, who signified his gratitude by taking 
a new bite upon the thigh: but at the second discharge 
he was lucky enough to pierce the heart, and escaped 
to tell the story. 



NO. IX. 

Sir — 1 can tell you no more of Calcutta, except that 
the Tank covers twentyfive acres, that there is, and 
ought to be, a monument to Lord ('live, that the En- 
glish take the (\r\v and tin- dust <.n the Cheringa road, 
and that two sides of the Black Hole are extant, re- 
sembling the Galaxy office, but more commodious, 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 37 

Now fancy us in the grand straits of Sunda, with 
high, bold shores covered with the richest tropical veg- 
etation. Boats came off for traffic, and we bought, for 
twelve dollars, eighteen large turtle, and were offered 
monkeys, parrots, and birds of paradise. 

Batavia, is called the Queen of the East, though it 
is but a Dutch queen. We anchored four miles from 
the town in nine fathom water, the dome of the church 
bearing south, half east. We found about forty sail of 
European and American ships, and a great many Chi- 
nese junks. 

The season had been so sickly that six hundred peo- 
ple had died in a day, and that we might not be exposed 
to the sun, Malays were hired to do the work of the 
ship. I went on shore and found the city in a low and 
obscure situation, intersected with canals, (for when 
did Dutchmen build a city without them?) and shaded 
with tamarind, and other beautiful trees. Some of the 
main streets make a good show, but nothing in Timbuc- 
too can be meaner than the Chinese quarter. The Chi- 
nese, however, are brisk, cheerful, and industrious, living 
in a strange land, and on the fat thereof, like a Scotch- 
man in England, or a Yankee in the Southern States; 
while the Javanese seemed torpid, indolent, and sullen. 

Black Bill, a shrewd negro, who has been rich, is 
called the American Consul; and he furnishes boats and 
supplies for the ships. Limpo Ghaun, an old China- 
man, has the credit of keeping the best grog shOj ; 
where, I grieve to say, is the rendezvous of my coun- 
trymen, who, soon fall into the Dutch custom of taking 
schnaps. 

The Chinese held a festival, on some occasion to me 

unknown, and brought out Josh, their hideous idol. A 

platform was erected on the top of several tall and 

smooth poles, and covered with provisions. At a signal, 

4 



38 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

there was a scramble for the provisions, many Chinese 
climbling up the poles at once; and their zeal and the 
difficulty of the ascent, were very ludicrous. Those 
below might have hauled down those above, by the 
queue, but that it is a deadly injury to take a Chinese 
by the tail. He may forgive the inadvertence of a 
stranger, and intreat him to let alone his hair, but in a 
countryman, the insult would be grievous. It is some- 
times inflicted as a penalty on a Chinese, to be deprived 
of his streamer, but lest it should fall into the hands o£ 
a stranger, the original proprietor will buy it at a great 
price. I, myself, am the owner of a queue like a pump 
handle, and should be glad to find a purchaser. There 
was a great commander at Goa, who filled the military 
chest by the mortgage of his whiskers; pray ask your 
broker, if in these times, he will advance a small sum 
on the security of mine. 

In the vicinity of the rity, are splendid mansions, 
amid beautiful gardens, and groves of tall cocoa palm. 
This, Sir, is a country to live in, though it is proper 
that a stranger should be ready also to die; for pestilence 
walks abroad like love, breathing spices and scattering 
destruction. 

I went a short distance in a machine carrying two 
passengers within, a postillion forward, and three lai kief 
without; the whole drawn by two horses, so small, that 
they reminded me of a rat dragging away his trap. All 
strangers, who have dignity and would preserve it, or 
health, and would not lose it, must keep one of these 
coaches, for the sun strikes with so much force that no 
common head can resist it. When 1 returned, ten hands 
were down with fever, and 1 myself tilt the Bytoptoms, 
which I put to flight with medicim > 

While we lay in port, there were heavy rains, and 
such thunder and lighting as \ ou have never heard or 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 39 

seen. A ship alongside, received a flash on the fore- 
royalmast head, which went off through the lower bends 
leaving fearful vestiges of its power. The foretopmast 
was splintered, and flew in all directions; the royal top- 
gallantmast fell, and the foremast took fire. These 
tempests brought the advantages of a purer atmosphere, 
for before they came the air was like that of a heated 
oven, yet^ at noon the sea breeze generally gave a 
little relief. 

The slaves are principally Malays, and are prover- 
bially stupid. It is said that when the master suspects 
the slave of theft, he gives him a piece of wood, keep- 
ing one of the same length himself, and telling his man 
that if he has stolen, his stick will grow at night, an 
inch longer than the other, whereupon the Malay, if 
guilty, cuts off an inch, and convicts himself. 

From Batavia, we coasted to Tagal, the very capital 
of pestilence, and court of death. Then we went to 
Samarang, a neater city, but neither are noted in my 
journal. I can only tell you, therefore, that dry docks 
are cut in the bank of the riyer, ships floated in, the 
entrance dammed up with mud, and the water bailed 
out with buckets. Here a crazy Dutch officer, suffer- 
ing under a stroke of the sun, which had baked his 
brains, carried me to prison, but I was soon released. 

There I saw the instruments that are used to arrest 
those, who, under the excitement of opium, passion, 
and the sun, sally out, attacking with the creese every 
one they meet. This is called running a muck. The 
instruments are a sort of forceps, with long handles 
large enough to grasp a man, strong enough to hold 
him, and rough enough with spikes, to restrain his 
struggles. 

Surabaya is a pleasant town, and more healthy than 
the last. Here we saw a man hung, for passing his 



40 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

creese through his muster's body, and he died with 
composure. We saw, too, an Englishman with a cou- 
ple of black swans, from Van Dieman's land, and each 

vara avis commanded a hundred dollars. 

I have other notes in my journal concerning Java, 
but as I discover in a Providence paper, lliat a ' broth- 
er sailor ' is cruising in the same Bets, 1 would not run 
across his bows. He lias chosen an unjust motto, for 
his ' Mariner's Sketches ' are net 

'As dry, as the remainder biscuit, after a voyage.' 

Now, Sir, brush up your imagination, and fancy us 
approaching the coast of China. We found the sea 
thronged with boats, among which we sailed a hundred 
and fifty miles, keeping away for' some, and for others 
luffing to. These frail barks are the only home of 
thousands of families. Hundreds and thousands are 
yearly lost, but what is such a deduction from the count- 
less population of China. 

"We anchored in the Macao Roads, and the captain 
landed to get a chop and pilot for Wnampoa. Macao 
is still held by the Portuguese, that is, as Char.pcquid- 
dick is held by the Indians. The houses are white, 
and at a distance the city looks well; but the delusion 
vanishes with the distance, like the respect rendered to 
rank, or the devotion paid to beauty. Whampoa is 
seventynve miles above this, and thirteen belbw Canton; 
yet we were five days in ascending, for when there was 
no calm the wind was contrary as a queen. We went 
up principally in one night It was dark, and we were 
runnino- eight knots; two pilots and the watch were 
looking out, yet we ran down a boat with a family. A 
fearful shriek from many voices, was our first intimation 
that a boat was near, for had there been a light it might 
have been saved. The pilot ran aft with terror in his 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 41 

looks, saying, ' Hi-yah no can talkee, suppose Manda- 
rin Sabc, he chop, chop, — cut off head.' On our arri- 
val at Whampoa, two of the Company's vessels saluted 
us with Yankee Doodle, and Von Weber himself never 
made such a tune. 



NO. X. 

Sir — Before we received our cargo, news arrived by 
a fast sailing cutter from the United States, of war with 
Great Britian. The ships ready for sea, slipped away, 
but before our preparations were made, the Doris frigate 
(soon joined by the Phoenix) kept a vigilant eye upon the 
river. Escape, therefore was impossible, and our situ- 
ation dismal ; for no solitude is so hard as that of a 
populous city, and no confinement so irksome as that in 
the midst of bustle and activity. Had we been on a 
desolate coast, with the freedom of the shore we should 
have been better pleased. Having therefore dismantled 
the ship, we erected on the deck a house of bamboo, so 
thickly covered with mats, that the rain could not enter. 

Though I was many months at Canton my opportunities 
for remark were few, for I was generally confined with 
fever, on board, or at lodgings ; and owe life and end- 
less gratitude to the captain for his paternal care. 
While I was on board there was an inundation greater 
than had ever been known; the river overflowed its 
banks ; and it was estimated that ten thousand boats 
were swept away, and that thirty thousand people per- 
ished in the flood. 

Notwithstanding the war between the nations there 
was no hostility between the English and Americans at 
4# 



42 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

Canton. They lived together as brothers ; the English 
physicians daily visited " ,ir deck, without fee or other 
reward than the satisfaction of doing a good action- 
On hoard the Marquis of Ely, which was moored near 
to us, there was an excellent band of music, and m 
often visited at the Marquis. Our chief officer was not 
the least welcome there, for he had wit, an irresistible 
laugh, and sung a good song ; that is, he sung it well. 
His voice however was too strong for the cabin, and 
when his songs were ended the guq deck rang with re- 
peated huzzas from two hundred men, 

We had been several months at Whauipoa and peace 
we well knew was distant. Fever and c mfinqment had 
shattered my frame, hut as I felt that any state is better 
than inactivity, I entered an English ship, to work my 
passage to London, hoping to get from tr/ence a con- 
veyance home. I had little money, but carried a draft 
on Boston, for the amount of my wages. However, 
like the vagabond in Goldsmith, 1 had an 'excellent 
knack at Roping, ' for the future always looked delight- 
ful, in snito of the experience of the past. [fell like 
Raleigh, that there was Hie tor me 'while the sea has 
pathless v. aves.' 

Before I describe the voyage to England; let 
commit another anachronism, in speaking of what 1 saw 
at Canton, at a different period. A seaman of the ship 
Emilv, of Baltimore, was charged with the murd< i 
Chinese woman. It was alleg* d that as she was stand- 
in"- in a boat along side, he threw at her an earthen jar, 
which hit her on t!u-. temple, thai she- fell into the water 
and was ts ken out dead. A g*ea1 many people collect- 
ed around the body, on short-, and the excitement was 
very high. After much palaver it w . ■ ■ d that the 

sailor should be tried fairly by an equal number of 
Ameri< an shipmasters, and Chi: rs, and if found 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 43 

guilty, given up for punishment. The viceroy, there- 
fore, issued orders for the trial to be held on board. The 
Rev. Mr Morrison was not allowed to interpret, because 
he was attached to the legation of a foreign power. The 
ship was prepared for the solemnity, the prisoner con- 
fined in the cabin, the arms removed, and the crew rang- 
ed on the forecastle. Eight Hong merchants were pre- 
sent. Houqua, Moqua, Gowqua, Chonqua, Puanqua, 
Kingqua, Pacqua, and Consequa. The Ponue, (mag- 
istrate) then came on board, and Pacqua and Tom (Cou- 
qua) who secures the ships, fell on their knees to hear 
his commands '; of which the American Committee could 
get no explanation. It was required that the prisoner 
should look the Ponue in the face. The jar was placed 
on the table, and also the hat worn by the deceased. 
When asked if he recognised the jar the prisoner re- 
plied that it was the same which he had handed to the 
deceased, that it might be filled with fruit. The Po- 
nue was irritated at this explanation and the interpre- 
ter, though repeatedly urged, did not translate half 
that was said, in defence, being interrupted by the Po- 
nue, who called the Chinese witnesses, saying that all 
he wanted of the prisoner, was a confession that he was 
trading with the deceased, and that this was his jar. It 
was evident that he had prejudged his victim. How- 
ever, the Americans yielded not, but insisted on the ex- 
amination of their own witnesses. They consented, 
however, that the Chinese testimony might be heard, in 
the full faith that their own would follow. The first 
witnesses were the husband of the deceased, two chil- 
dren, and a woman. They crawled towards the magis- 
trate on their hands and knees, not daring to raise their 
eyes from the deck. The woman could not point out 
the prisoner, though no other sailor was near, until the 
interpreter laid his hand upon him. She then gave a 



44 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

lone account of the affair, in which she wa< prompted 
by the eldest child. This was stated to the interpreter, 
but he would not explain it, nor was the woman who 
spoke English, allowed to use that language. 

The committee then conjured Houqua to give a faith- 
ful account of what they should say, and it was shown 
from what the woman admitted of the posit inn of the 
boats, that the ship was between them, and that there- 
fore, she could not have seen the occurrence. More- 
over, it was proved that the same woman had said to 
four Americans, that she did not see the allair. The in- 
struments of torture were produced, hut she persisted m 
her story, saying that then she told the truth, though 
before she had uttered a lie. We called witnesses to 
testify that the hat of the deceased was broken not l>y 
the prisoner, hut hy the husband, when the ' upright 
judge,' rose in anger, saying that he could Bee for him- 
self that the jar fitted the hole in the hat, and that the 
jar belonged to the man, who must be given up. 

The reply was, that other things may have caused 
the woman's death. She may have slipped, or the hus- 
band may have killed her; and. moreover, we have a 
witness to prove that the plisoner handed the jar to the 
deceased, who took it. For this mockery of a trial, we 
will not give up the man, and if you take him, we will 
consider it violence and strike our flag. 

The Ponue replied that it was Heaven's business, 
and that if he judged wrong, the Lord would aveuge it, 
but that he felt that the prisoner was guilty. He dared 
not, however, take him away, but retired to consult 
the Viceroy. 

Alter several days, the seaman was taken by the Chi- 
nese authorities; another day was appointed lor a fur- 
ther trial at the Cansoo House, and permission given 
for friends to appear in defence. The poor sailor, con- 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 45 

scious of innocence, and little dreaming of danger, was 
as calm as ever, but not a friend appeared. Perhaps 
no defence would have availed, but this cannot justify 
the neglect of his contrymen. A few noble Englishmen 
who endeavoured to gain admittance, were driven back. 
Questions were put to the prisoner, and his answers 
misinterpreted into a confession of guilt; and he was 
withdrawn amid the fury of the populace, to a death of 
torture, rendered doubly bitter by the desertion of his 
countrymen. Shame ! shame ! shame! 

[ have extracted this account that you may see the 
state of the judiciary in China. No life i-s safe, and I 
suppose that this Ponue is in as much peril from a high- 
er officer, as the prisoner before himself. The stream 
of justice is poisoned at the source. The terror of the 
interpreter, and the prostration ofthe bodies, as well as 
the consciences ofthe witnesses, show the tremendous 
power ofthe judge. 



NO. XL 



Sir — As I lived chiefly on Canton River, that only 
can I describe. A thousand islands are sprinkled at 
the entrance, which made the navigation difficult, till the 
Company ordered an excellent chart. Yet it is neces- 
sary to take a pilot at Lintin island, eighteen miles above 
Macao, where, though the river is ten miles wide, the 
channel is narrow. At the Tiger's Mouth, thirty five 
miles above, the river narrows to three quarters of a 
mile, and might be commanded by suitable forts. The 
Chinese forts are low, and have perhaps an hundred 
guns, but could hardly arrest the progress of a frigate 



46 LETTERS FROM A MARIN Til. 

Whampoa which is on a low island, is almost in- 
undated in heavy rains. The houses arc huddled togeth- 
er, and the streets filled with mud and filth. 

The approach to Canton is indicated by ten thou- 
sand boats, for here ' there are hind thieves and water 
thieves.' Some boats that bring down the tea 3 ire two 
hundred feet long. Tbey are kept very mat, ami re- 
semble the canal boats of Europe. But of all the craft 
that floats on the river or elsewhere the strangest is the 
junk. It is sometimes of a thousand tons, and carries 
five hundred men. There is one principal mast -tend- 
ing between two smaller ones, and on this i- hoisted a 
huge sail of matting and twisted bamboo. The smaller 
masts are used principally to display the broad ami i_ r andy 
flags. A pair of eyes is painted on the bows of all ves- 
sels, and in a junk the glim is as large as a hogshead. 
The sterns are adorned with figures of beasts, birds, and 
serpents. 

A mile below the Factories, is a ruin called the Dutch 
Folly, though if the legend be true, Mynheer was more 
knave than tool. The Dutch, it is said, obtained permission 
to build a hospital, but erected a fort, and were carrying 
ashore in hogsheads, their guns, calling them provisions, 
when one cannon broke through and tumbled into the 
river. ' Hi-yah, how can sick man eat gun,' said the 
Chinese and the Dutch were detected too soon to profit 
by their trick. 

Foreigners are limited to the suburbs, and it is not 
safe to go far from the Factories. That part mar to 
the Factories is very neat : the shops are convenient, 
and make a great display. It was a few years ago de- 
stroyed by fire, yet the damage was as Boon repaired as 
the breach of an ant-hill, and such is the horror of a 
Chinese at innovation, it was rebuilt exactly as it itood 
before. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 47 

It was my fortune to be at Canton when about forty 
captains and others, English and American, made a 
respectful remonstrance to the viceroy, on various points 
of grievance and exaction. The principal complaint was 
of the price of a boat to Macao, which often cost from 
eight hundred to a thousand dollars, and the remon- 
strants determined to deliver their address themselves. 
I also thrust myself among them, and having fortified 
our resolution by a collation, we marched out in pairs, 
headed by a Parsee, who knew the avenues, and lan- 
guage. We walked swiftly and silently, and having 
passed through many streets, to me unknown, came sud- 
denly to the city gate. This was open, but forty paces 
inward, was a small wicker gate where two soldiers 
kept guard. We rushed on, but they closed the doors, 
and without violence we could advance no farther. They 
gave the alarm, calling out Fang qui ! and we were 
soon surrounded by an immense concourse, whose long 
tails and smooth shaven crowns, were exceedingly gro- 
tesque. A mandarin came to ask our wants, but we 
made no other parley than that we must see his master. 
Another came, but the Parsee who knew his grade 
from his cap, refused to communicate; and next came 
he whom we desired to see. He sent for Houqua, and 
the poor old soul came more dead than alive; his teeth 
chattering like castanets. He entreated us to return 
from the gate, but we refused to go without a promise 
that our address should be delivered. The promise 
was given, but the next day the address was returned 
to us without reply. This was all that I had to do in 
this strange embassy, but the party made a second at- 
tempt to enter the city, and succeeded. They were 
lucky enough to rush in before the gates could be clos- 
ed. The Parsee who led, remarked that one sentinel 
ran away, and as he supposed, to the viceroy's palace. 



48 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

Him they followed, though he ran so fast that his stream- 
er was horizontal as a weathercock. They entered the 
court-yard of the palace, and were surrounded by sol- 
diers. They listened to* long lecture seasoned with 
threats, and were then conducted back. Many of the 
wrongs, however, were redressed, and a boat may now 
be had to Macao for forty dollars. 

Before I quit the Chinese seas, let me extract from the 
journal of another voyage, an account of our perUoui .-.t- 
uation at Manilla. We were riding in the baj in Wteen 
fathom water, with a small bower and cham anchoi not, 
when the weather changed in an instant, and all band! 
were called to get down the royal } anls and masts, At 5 
o'clock, A. M. she went adrift, and we gave her a 
scope of sixty fathom cable, which did no| br*g her up, 

and the gale was freshening every m ent. I I"- ship 

drifted a mile an hour, lying in the trough ol a danger- 
ous sea. We could not, with safety, drop our besl bow- 
er anchor, unless we could bring head to the wind; for, 
as she then lav, had we let go the starboard anchor, 
the vessel on swinging -round, would have brought 
across in the cables, with the chain above the hemps 
and the latter would have been at once worn oil. W 
cut away the spars in the fore part of the ship, but .tdid 
not bring her head to the wind. There was now a hur- 
ricane forcing the ship nearly on her beam e«ds, and 
the weather so thick that we could not see ten yards. 
The barometer fell to twentynine inches, and • 
thing wore an appalling look. Set though it was a 
time of terror, we omitted to do nothing that might save 

us. 

We cleared the shoal of Saint Nicholas, and were 
driving to the southeast short of the bay, when sound- 
ing, within a few minutes, changed from fifteen (■• ten 
fathoms, and to muddy water. As the last resource, 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 49 

we let go the sheet anchor, which, with the advantage 
of a long scope,' and good holding ground, brought her 
up; but with a cross in the cables that we feared would 
eause our destruction. Our ship was of the strongest, 
for not one in five could have sustained so long the fury 
of such winds and waves. To ease the cables we cut 
away two of the masts, and the axe was about to fall up- 
on the third, when the wind shifted in a moment, blowing 
offshore, and producing a smoother sea. 

But before this, the ship in plunging bow to the sea, 
brought up, on the chain cable, with such violence, as 
to capsize the windlass, part the deck stoppers, and tear 
the nipper up from abaft; though it was secured to the 
deck by bolts passing through the beams. It was car- 
ried forward, wedged under the windlass, forcing up the 
bitts, and the cables would have been lost had they not 
been clenched to the mainmast. 



NO. XII. 

Sir — Now suppose me (in spite of the last anachron- 
ism) on board a Company's ship, working passage to 
London. There was a large fleet, under convoy of the 
Doris and Phoenix frigates. We left the river in gallant 
style, and on the next day the Doris returned, having 
sailed in the fleet merely to decoy the Americans to 
sea. Our ship, being a fast sailer, was ordered by the 
Commodore to look out, and it was a laborious duty for 
the crew; for by day we had to press all sail ahead of 
the fleet, and return to it at night. 

On the sixteenth day we entered the Straits of Banca, 
between the island of that name and Sumatra. In Ban- 
€a there are tin mines, that belong to the Dutch, and 
5 



50 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

nrunense quantities of the metal arc exported to China, 
and other countries. The coast of Sumatra ,s here so 
low, that the first indication you have ot land is the 

sight of trees. 

We anchored off Auger, and when we were again 
under sail, the commander charged the crew at large 
with having stolen six dozen fowls; and as no one would 
peach, or conies,, the grog of the whole was stopped 
till wc should reach Saint Helena. But there was not 
half that number of fowls taken in at Auger, and the 
charge of the captain was but a trick to withhold the 
alcohol I had been told before we sailed, that he was 
not distinguished for gentleness to inferiors, and at sea 
I had daily evidence of the fact. ■ I did not fe< 1 quu-t, 
for I might do wrong or he might believe that I did, 
and with him punishment did not always delay lor con- 
viction But I had the good fortune to please. One 
day when the captain was looking at the sail-maker's 
.an-, I saw his eye resting upon me, and plied the nee- 
dle fast; he condescended to ask after my health, and to 
direct the purser to receive my name to the articles; by 
which I had full seaman's wages, two pounds five shil- 
lings a month. 

Our shin was very large, as all ships of the Honora- 
ble Company are. None are of less than twelve hun- 
dred tons, and some arc of more than fifteen hundred 
tons measurement. Wc carried twentyibur thousand 
chests of tea, besides other goods, mounted thirtytwo 
eighteen pounders, and mustered one hundred and six- 
tyfive men, for so were they called, as wc rank with 

dogs, 

I Mongrel, puppy, whelp, nnd »:< 
And curs of low dog; 
Wc had Frenchmen, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Russians, 
Danes, Swedes, Greeks, Prussians, Yankees, Portu- 
guese, Italians, Creoles, and Chinese. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 51 

This formidable band were exercised daily at the guns; 
but I little doubted that a Baltimore privateer of sixteen 
guns, could give me a passage home in a prize ship. 

On Sundays, all hands were assembled early, by the 
tolling of the bell, and gathered to hear the service, un- 
der an awning on the quarter deck; and wo betided him 
who came late, unshaven, or without a clean shirt. 

One of the crew, a poor young Portuguese, was draw- 
ing near his end, and as his memory wandered back to 
the vineyards of Oporto, he longed for a taste of their 
wines; a little of which the surgeon requested for him 
of the captain. i Port wine! Doctor, (said the Bashaw,} 
when you know there is hardly enough for my own 
table ?' 

We rounded the Cape of Good Hope with a good 
breeze, and here the crew were again assembled to re- 
ceive threats for general neglect of duty: but no promi- 
ses were made in case of our doing well, whence I sup- 
posed i; i :> be more agreeable to our commander to pun- 
ish than to reward. 

At Saint Helena, the fleet anchored off Jamestown, 
but we could get no water for four days, as the Bombay 
and Bengal fleets were to be first served. 

The confinement of that wonderful man, Napoleon, 
has made Saint Helena too well known for me to de- 
scribe it. When the signal for sailing was made, our 
anchor, of sixtyfive hundred weight, came up to the 
bows like a collier's, and ours was the first, among fifty 
ships, that had head to the northwest. This elicited 
from the second officer the only civil speech he was ever 
known to make—' Hurrah, my boys, for Old England.' 
This, however, was his last offence against dignity and 
sullenness, and he seemed to be ashamed of having been 
betrayed into a momentary gGod humour. He was, 
however, a man of his word, for he never threatened a 



52 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

sailor with a drubbing, without a faithful, that is, a full 
performance. 

We had a good run across the equator, though the 
voyage was much retarded by the dull sailers in the 
fleet. Near to Corvo, the man at the mast head gav 
notice of two strange sail, bearing down upon us, from 
the island. We were sailing in three columns, each 
headed by a frigate, and the Commodore was slow to be- 
lieve that an American privateer would look in the face 
of such a force. The two sails obtained a position 
ahead of us, and lingered till we were within four 
miles, when they ran up the American flag, and filled 
away, one going sea-ward, and the other tacking for 
the islands. Two frigates were instantly under a press 
of sail in pursuit of one of the fugitives, and the first 
was soon so near as to open a running fire from the bow 
guns. I was congratulated on the prospect of having 
my countrymen to sup with me, for all pretended to 
think it over with Jonathan. But I knew the gentleman 
better; for he shot across his enemy's bow, bringing 
her close in a wind, and the frigates returned without a 
prize. 

On the 5th of August we saw the Lizard Point. We 
steered up channel with every sail spread; and it was a 
brave sight to see the fleet sweeping along, so deeply 
laden with the riches of the East. A richer, it was s:ii«l . 
never came round the Cape. 

On the latter part of the voyage, I tumbled twenty 
feet, struck upon the muzzle of a gun, and was carried 
away like Hotspur on the stage. I soon recovered 
and was satisfied, for once, to have so hard a head. 

In the Dover Roads the convoy left us, and every 
ship went to London as her commander preferred. The 
jack tars were in lofty spirits, for the wages of a long 
voyage were due, and there was at that time no danger 
of impressment. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINES. 53 

i 

The confusion that followed the mooring of the ship 
is not to be described. All discipline was ended, and 
hammocks, chests, and bags, obstructed every passage. 
The Jews, who had successfully studied the nature of a 
sailor, came on board with liquors, fruits, and other re- 
freshments. These they dispensed with a libera! hand ? 
but with no charitable intent. They knew that the road 
to a sailor's heart lay directly over his palate. Now at 
sea I had often heard the sailors speak evil of the Jews, 
and resolve to have no further dealing with the tribes; 
yet when a bottle of gin was decanted, the Israelites 
were viewed through a more favorable medium, and m 
three days the current coin of the sailors was in He- 
brew hands. 

I went up in one of the Gravesend boats, which land- 
ed me at Billingsgate, where the English language is 
spoken in great purity. 

What some traveller says of Lisbon, is true also of 
London at Billingsgate — that it has a double advantage 
over cities that attract only the eye of a traveller: for it 
takes his attention also by the nose. 

I put my goods on the back of a porter, who could 
carry as much as a camel, and trot off with it as fast. 
I ran after him, for a prudent genera! has always an eye 
to the baggage. In my haste, I stepped upon the fish 
that a young lady was assorting into heaps. She seiz- 
ed an eel that was yet alive, which she applied to my 
shoulder as I retreated, calling me at the same time the 
son of a dog's wife. I overtook the dromedary as he 
entered the Pig and Gridiron. He demanded a crown, 
and I was foolish enough to give him half; but the fe- 
rocious water nymph had bewildered my intellect. 

I then took to the streets, and as I was staring at. a 
caricature of a Yankee, at a print-shop, was tapped on 
the back by a midshipman of the Tndiaman, who asked 
5* ' 



54 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

me to dine at his sister's, in Shorcditch. I could never 
refuse a friend so reasonable a request, and went with 
him where I found a good dinner, partook, and wat 
thankful. He then carried me to Leadenhall street, 
where I found several friends whom I had known in 
Canton, and where I engaged pasturage at a guinea a 
week. 



NO. XIII. 



Sir — At our boarding house I found a young Ameri- 
can named White, an excellent fellow, seated at table, 
with a segar and pot of beer; an emblem of content- 
ment, though money was low in bis pocket. We agreed 
to blend our present means and to unite our future for- 
tunes. At first, we were to spend our money in ex- 
ploring London, and in examining what was curious and 
rare, supposing that we could, at any time, find employ- 
ment in another ship. Herein we took of the future lit- 
tle heed; like that idle animal which hangs upon a tree 
till it has eaten every green leaf, when it tumbles down, 
hardly able, under its exhaustion, to ascend again. 

In one of our early rambles, coming to the Serpentina 
River, we saw a fleet of small ships, that had been rig- 
ged for the amusement of Royalty. They were of about 
fourteen tons each, and completely manned and armed. 
On some gala days they represented two Bqoadrons, un- 
der the British and American ensign. Mock battles 
were fought, in which, I suppose, the British flag was 
never struck. 

By the last of August we had seen something of Lon- 
don, and such a reduction had been made in our fundi. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 55 

that we began to think of ways and means. We there- 
fore went to Mr Beaseley's office, but the Consul was 
absent. The clerks advised a voyage to the West In- 
dies, as only prisoners of war could be sent home at the 
public expense, 

On the fourth day of our search after employment, 
we found a ship for Bermuda, and agreed to work on 
board at the river price, 2s. 6d. and a dinner, per diem. 
We had given so much to watermen, in searching for a 
vessel, that we were reduced to that doubtful friend, the 
last shilling; and something formidable was due to our 
landlord. Our first financial operation, therefore, was 
to leave articles with a pawn broker, worth twenty dol- 
lars, on which we raised 16s. 6d. Being in funds again, 
we boldly resolved to begin the day with breakfast, and 
visited the stall of an old woman who sold coffee, bread, 
and butter; but before taking the dainties, we were con- 
siderate enough to ask the. damage, and learned with plea- 
sure that we could make a good breakfast for two pence. 
We labored for the day on board, and returned to sleep 
on shore, but with an appetite like a crocodile's. To 
sup at an eating house would have been death; but we 
feasted magnificently in the street, upon a loaf, and two 
smoked herrings. After this independent meal, we 
marched into a beer house, and called for a pint, with 
as much confidence as if we had been ' dipped in Pac- 
tolus.' 

This course we followed for ten days, but were not 
elated to learn that we were not to be paid till the ship 
arrived at Gravesend. Now, being able, we were anx- 
ious to redeem our chattels, and had the mate's permis- 
sion to go. We called at the Captain's house, for which 
civility he expressed less pleasure than surprise, and 
asked whence we came, and what we wanted ? We re- 
vealed as much of our history as related to the pawn- 



LETTERS FRO?I \ MARINER. 

broker, when he launched out forty shilling?, the amount 
due for wages. 

He advised us to make haste, lest we should he too 
late to intercept the ship at Gravcsend. We were too 
late, and the vessel sailed without us; but we had forty 
shillings in bank, and began to feel the insolence of 
wealth. But it was too good to last, though we were as 
economical as the State Legislature. On the seventh day 
after the sailing of the ship, we had Is. 6d. in the funds, 
and we supped for sixpence each, with a poetical indif- 
ference to the future. In the morning, there seemed no 
resource; when, in the nick of time, we found a ship, 
and gave notice to our countrymen, one of whom, an old 
Triton, was appointed boatswain. But the old luck was 
near, and we had to shog, as the vessel could not be 
cleared with any American sailors. Our resentment 
kept up our spirits, and in good time, White recollected 
that, at his former lodging, he had a Kodiac cloak, and 
a few shells, from the Sandwich islands. Theso we car- 
ried to Exeter "Change, where there was a cabi- 
net of curiosities. A lady named Phipps, and her 
daughter, were the attendants. The kind lady seemed 
to feel an interest in our adventures, calling us her chil- 
dren, and giving ten shillings for our merchandize; 
though, as she had better specimens, wc knew that the 
money was given in charity. These excellenl peopN 
conducted us through the museum, and when wc were 
about to go, asked us to drink their health in n glass of 
wine, and wc were not rude enough to refase. 

We were now in affluent circumstances— thanks to 
those*who bought our good.-. ;nd whose sex ( would 
eulogize, if I could, after the manner of Ledyard. I 
tune now began to favor us, and sent as to an honest 
collier, who carried a good heart under a soiled jerkin. 
He was bound for Ostcnd, and permitted us to work the 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 57 

passage. We went after our chests with light hearts; 
but that we might pay a porter for their carriage, we 
had such dealings with a pawn-broker as diminished 
their weight; they grew lighter under the operation, like 
Falstaff walking up Gadshill. At night, I could find no 
shelter but a small scuttle in the forecastle, where the 
coals had settled down. 

At Ostend we thought our cares were over, when we 
saw a cutter about to sail with despatches; but the mas- 
ter was absent, and the people would not receive us on 
board. This looked like old times, and we went to 
a Scotchman who had acted as American Consul. He 
told us, in his peculiarly agreeable way, that he could 
do nothing for us, but advised us to make tracks towards 
Ghent; we expressed no gratitude for the counsel, but 
discharged, in a fev/ words, some misanthropy that had 
begun to gather about our hearts, and left Sir Munga 
Malagrowther, in better spirits than we had lately felt. 

My comrade sold his chest, and we lashed on our 
packs, and set off, looking like peddling Jews, for Bru- 
ges. Having walked four hours, we stopped at a neat 
farm house, to get a drink of beer; but having no know- 
ledge of a sign to denote beer, we received milk, and 
money was refused in payment. I never before saw 
neatness carried to such extremes as in this cottage; 
every metallic utensil shone like gold, and the floors 
were white as scrubbing could make them. 

The streets of Bruges we found narrow and ill paved; 
and where in Boston there is a side walk, there is in 
Bruges a gutter. In the centre of the town was a 
square, where there was a drill of raw troops. On one 
side the square is a grand cathedral, which we entered,, 
and ascended a flight of steps; hereupon a man ap- 
proached, and intimated that our further advance de- 
pended upon our liberality. We had no money for such 



■38 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

vanities, but offered the smallest copper coin, which the 
man took, after he had made a mouth at it, and admit- 
ted us to see a large organ and clock. We then ascend- 
ed to the dome of the church, where there was abound- 
less prospect of the level country. Here there were 
fortyninc bells, and, thank Fortune! none of them were 
struck during our visit. 

The charge for supper was so light, that we took pas- 
sage in a trcckschuyl for Ghent. This conveyance is 
safer than by steam, but it is miserably slow, though 
well adapted to the genius of a Dutchman, who is sel- 
dom in a hurry and never in a passion. He is as im- 
passive as Outalissa — a stoic of the canals. 

We arrived by sunset at Ghent, when fifty bold and 
ragged boys made a plunge at the baggage. Two of 
them made a simultaneous seizure of mine, struggling 
for it like two dogs for a bone, or like the Arabs for the 
absolute possession of Captain Riley. I did not know 
enough Dutch to express myself in words, but I rapped 
them over the knuckles, and they took my meaning. 

Arrived at the minister's house, we entered as if we 
had come to our own home. We expressed tc the ser- 
vant our desire to have an immediate interview with the 
plenipotentiaries. He, seeing that we were Americans, 
and perhaps taking us for diplomatists in disguise, led us 
to Mr Adams, who took us by the hand, as if v.o had 
been old friends, long parted. It was the republican 
grip, that we had not felt for many a day. 

He then asked us what we wanted, and having satis- 
fied this natural curiosity, wc were told that we should 
be sent home; for, said he, civilly, the country has occa- 
sion for service from lads like you. We had high life: 
in the kitchen, till the other ministers returned from an 
excursion, when wc were sent with a letter to Captain 
Jones, at Antwerp, a hundred miles. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 5S> 



NO. XIV. 



Sir — On our departure, the gentlemen of the kitchen 
gave us dinner at a tavern, and at four o'clock, having 
stuffed our pack with cold provisions, they accompanied 
us to the gates. Here we went into an alehouse and 
charitably drank 'misfortune to our enemies.' The 
sun was near setting and the sky threatened rain. It 
soon fell and we passed on wet and weary, in the belief 
that we had lost our way. At length we saw a light 
ahead, and it encouraged us as much as the sight of 
land cheered Columbus. The first house had the sign 
of an inn, and we entered with little ceremony. A 
pretty young woman who was knitting at a side table, 
started with astonishment, for we were covered with 
white rnud; and an old boor, who was sitting over a 
turf fire, smoking his eternal pipe, raised his spectacles 
to his nose, and surveyed us with attention. 

The young woman could speak French, and asked 
my comrade what tongue it was in which we conversed; 
and being told that we were Americans, expressed her 
surprise that our skins were so white, and our hair so 
little curled. 

When we arrived at Antwerp, we saw the American 
ensign on a ship in the river, and we hailed and request- 
ed a boat. The steward furnished a good breakfast, 
after which the captain sent a message forward, re- 
questing the pleasure of our company in the cabin. 
This civility boded no good, and the commander in- 
formed us that we must go to Amsterdam, where a ves- 
sel was fitting out, and he gave us money enough for 
the journey, with a letter to the Consul. It was the 
fortune of war, as a great man says when he is van- 
quished, and we set off to try one port after another, 



60 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

for a passage home, as Vandcrdecken boards the ship* 
about the Cape, to send his letters. 

My comrade was all life and spirits, and I believe 
would have been glad to be sent in this manner to eve- 
ry port in Europe. We went oft* lighter than before, 
for we sent our baggage by the Diligence, addressed to 
the Consul. 

It was about nine o'clock, when we passed the east- 
ern gate; the roads were good and the air was clear. 
At eleven we stopped under a shade and commenced 
an intimacy with the steward's beef, and thought that 
if the state of the world permitted, we should like to 
wander about in it, like Sancho and his master, in 
search of adventures; especially of such as occurred 
at Camacho's wedding. A pleasing young woman now 
passed us; she was about twenty years of age, having a 
handkerchief only on her head, and a small bundle in 
her hand, and with such an air of dejection as excited 
our curiosity. 

The roads here were singularly* pleasant, being shad- 
ed with venerable elms, whose branches are so inter- 
locked as to form a perfect shelter, and the road 60 
level and straight, that nothing intercepted the sight till 
they seemed to terminate in a point. 

On this walk, my companion entertained me with 
some of the adventures of his life, and they were so 
numerous and strange, that my own, in comparison, 
seem to have little incident. 

We approached a woman and child, covered with 
tatters; to them we poured out the whole contents of 
the wallet, and left them eating after the manner of 
those who eat seldom. 

We next overtook the young woman who had para d 
us while we were resting; and my companion, by means 
of his French and some German, entered into corner- 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 61 

sation. She belonged to a town in Germany, distant 
four hundred miles. Her husband was a conscript in 
the army of Russia, and as she had heard that his regi- 
ment had been disbanded in Antwerp, thither she trav- 
elled to. get some tidings of him, but in vain. Her 
story affected us so much that we offered half the 
money we had to help her homewards, but she would 
not take it. But though the pilgrim of fidelity refused 
our coiri, she offered us many thanks. We gave her 
little encouragement that she could find her husband; 
he was probably slain 'at that great battle under the 
walls of Moscow,' or hunger, cold, or the Cossacks, 
destroyed him in the retreat. 

In the morning we walked to Breda, rapidly, for the 
weather was cold, as the season was the middle of Oc- 
tober. On our entrance to the city, we were assailed 
by half a dozen Sergeant Kites, who desired to enlist us 
in the army of the Prince of Orange, offering present 
pay and future glory. We refused the terms, but one 
of the recruiting officers had the goodness to take us 
to the canal boats, engage for us a passage to Dort, 
and settle the price with the skipper. We laid in a 
provision of bread and cheese, and went off with a 
breeze at the rate of five miles an hour; when the 
breeze failed, a horse carried us off at that snail-like 
pace so congenial with the operations of a Dutchman's 
intellect. 

We passed directly through Dort, and had a breeze 
again for Rotterdam. But we quitted the boat for a 
good road and arrived by night at the outskirts of Delft, 
a considerable town. We took the liberty to ask an 
idle soldier, if there were in Delft, any houses where 
travellers were fed and lodged for money, and he re- 
plied that there was one which he would have the honor 
to show us. He left us at the door, upon which we 
6 



62 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

knocked long and loud, and at the seventh peal, a weazle- 
iaced man came and asked what we wanted, and on 
being informed, requested us to quit his premises. I 
admit that our appearance was not at all in our favor, 
but lodgings were necessary and supper desirable. We 
next went into a butcher's shop, and asked to be directed 
to lodgings, when a young man, who was buying a beef- 
steak for his supper, said he would take us to a house 
where we should lodge like the Prince of Orange, 
which was all that we could reasonably require. After 
passing many alleys too narrow for a jackass with pan- 
niers, we arrived at the princely lodgings. An old 
woman, who looked much like a witch, requested that 
we would be seated, and in complying with her request, 
I wedged myself into a bottomless chair, in the posture 
of a chicken trussed for the spit. The witch apologised 
for the state of her furniture, and gave me the joint 
stool. She further told us that she had nothing better 
to drink than buttermilk, of which we took a hearty 
swig, and gave her money to get something of more 
substance for supper. 

In a dark corner,* we discovered an old Frenchman, 
rendered blind and deaf by age, smoking with much 
satisfaction a pipe two inches long. He was ninetyfire 
years old, had been absent forty years from France, 
which he still hoped to sec again, and we pleased him 
by saying that his hopes were reasonable. 

We had a sumptuous meal of beefsteaks and hot po- 
tatoes, and requested leave to take possession of our 
lodgings. The old woman brought a ladder, which bIm 
placed against the ceiling overhead, and ascended 
through a scuttle, desiring us to follow. Our supper 
had made us bold and we did follow, into such a loft as 
Sancho never occupied in his hardest fortunes. Our 
appearance and poverty we 1 bought a sufficient protec- 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 63 

tion, though we had some misgivings when we heard 
the trap door bolted after us; but fatigue and sleep 
overpowered us, and late in the morning, the sun shin- 
ing in our faces interrupted our slumbers. 

We started with new vigor for Amsterdam, distant 
twentyfive miles, and before we had gone half the dis- 
tance, discovered the elevated spires of the city. The 
country through which we passed was exceedingly fer- 
tile, and cultivated like a garden. Six miles from the 
city, we passed a large open field with immense herds 
of cattle, the largest I had ever seen; every one of 
them covered with a white linen garment, and this was 
the first time I ever saw an ox with a shirt on. 

The Consul at Amsterdam did not receive us with 
smiles, nor did he bestow any thanks upon Captain 
Jones, or the ministers at Ghent, for the honor of our 
acquaintance. However, he bade us find board and 
lodging at five guilders, (two dollars) for that he would 
not give a stiver more. We were received at a decent 
house for seven guilders; and as I was standing at the 
door I beheld the young German woman of whom I 
made mention as having sought her husband at Antwerp, 
and whom we saw last near Breda. 

On seeing us she stopped and began to weep bitterly. 
We comforted her as well as we could, and she told us 
that she had been robbed of all the money she had in 
the world, and that she had nothing to rely upon but 
the cold charity of the inhabitants on the road, which 
would never carry her home. The good woman of the 
house called her in, to offer a supply of bread and 
cheese, and my comrade who carried the purse, gave 
her full half the contents, and the whole would not have 
niade her rich. She departed in better spirits, and with 
renewed hopes of reaching her home. 



64 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 

At the end of the week, our landlady, in her hest 
attire, and it would have made you laugh to hchold it, 
went to the Consul for payment. She was dismissed 
without money or ceremony, but on reflection, she sent 
her son and daughter to carry the bill again, when it 
was paid, for the son was pertinacious and the daughter 
••retty. But the Consul directed us to find lodging 
elsewhere, at five guilders, and we were obliged to livt 
in a cellar, where we fed principally on cabbage. At 
this time we were employed in making ready for sea a 
small schooner, which we rigged completely, and bal- 
lasted with pigs of cast iron. 

At Christmas, the ice was so thick that the wlu.lt 
population was out in sledges and with skates. The 
ladies were excellent skaters, passing along as a scholar 
might say, with the swiftness of Camilla — 

1 When like a passing thought she fled 
In light away.' 

There was at this time a Dutch ship in the harbor, 
whose master was of Philadelphia, living on board with 
his wife and family. He had sometimes employed me 
in his vessel, and to him I applied to raise a small sum 
by pledging the draft I had received for wages in Can- 
ton. The draft he would not take from me, and I re- 
quired of him but fifteen guilders. ' Give him twenty,' 
said his kind hearted wife, which he immediately ofii 
and in so friendly a way, that he made me doubly oblig- 
ed to him. 

The news of peace between the United States and 
Great Britain, was received with joyful acclamations at 
Amsterdam; and the old Dutchmen grinned with de- 
light at the prospect of good tobacco, for lately, 
they had smoked inferior qualities, and at enormous* 
prices. 



LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 65 

As I was about to sail, I received a message from 
the friend that had lent me the guilders, who had found 
me a situation as chief officer, on board a brig under 
the Norway flag, bound for Philadelphia. We had a 
prosperous passage home, and it was a joyful sight to 
me to behold the sandy shore of Cape Henlopen. 

And now, Sir, take out your wipe, which the vulgar 
call handkerchief, and get an onion, for this is the last 
Letter of the Mariner. 



6* 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 



NO. I. 

Mr Editor — It is a good thing for New England 
that all her sons can read, and it is a better thing for 
the Galaxy, that some of them can also write. Thanks 
to my genius, and to an old lady in horn rimmed specta- 
cles, I can do something in either way. This, however, 
I say from no wish to mortify you or others, who arc 
less indebted to nature and fortune. JV071 omnia oppos- 
um us omnes, as my old schoolmaster said upon all oc- 
casions; whence I conclude that it has a general appli- 
cation, and is proper to be quoted now. 

I, my son, (excuse familiarity, for I am a kind soul), 
am as well acquainted with every nook in New Eng- 
land, as you are learned in the avenues of Boston. 
There is not a village where I am not known, <>r a se- 
cluded farm house where I am a Btranger; and few aro 
the dogs that growl at Jonathan Farbink. From my 
manner of life, I have formed, like Wordsworth, a social 
attachment to inanimate objects : I honor Mount Hol- 
yokc, and reverence the White Mountains. There are 
streams that I love more than the old heathens loved 



TRAVELS OF A. TIN PEDLAR- 67 

Arethuse, and many unnamed and unknown springs, 
that gush from the rocks, I rank above the fountains of 
Bandusia, and Vaucluse. Green River, though I have 
not seen it, I love, inasmuch as I admire and honor Mr 
Bryant. But in my circumgyrations, which is a tough 
word for wanderings, I take an especial delight in pass- 
ing a school house; counting 'that day lost,' when I do 
not see one. I always stop a moment to question the 
white headed boys upon their studies, and to offer a bit 
of candy, (for in that also I deal,) to the damsels. It 
shakes from my round shoulders, twenty hard years to 
be thus employed in front of a red school house ; for I 
seem at the moment, to be a chubby urchin, laden with 
bread and cheese, toiling for the head of the class, and 
blushing at my own honors, and the praises of the 
master. 

The place where I first opened to light and literature 
a pair of small grey eyes, was a small village near the 
Cape. In early youth, before I had dropped the Ro- 
man costume that children wear, and assumed the bar- 
barum tegmen, of Tacitus, I had displayed a marvellous 
taste for letters : and to this day I remember the intellec- 
tual pleasure with which I acquired the alphabet; which 
course of study, like Scriberus, I ate through in gin- 
gerbread. I am told that the law furnishes a similar 
train of education at Lincoln's Inn. From my instruc- 
tress, however, I concealed my facility in acquiring, 
well knowing that the alphabet once over, there was to 
spelling no royal road, any more than to geometry. 

The time passed at school, was from my tenth to my 
eighteenth year. If you ask if I loved the school house, 
I must task my candor, to say that I had a preference 
for the woods and fields, and formed a thousand truant 
like excuses ; the most successful of which was the pre- 
tence of colic, then called by another name. Often .was 



68 TRAVELS OF A TIN TEPLAR. 

I found loitering by the thickets, paddling in the stream, 
building dams like a beaver, or fashioning in the high- 
way, cakes and loaves of mud. But in eight jean, 
hope and fear, ambition and the birch, gave me the 
character of a scholar, who knew little less than the 
master, and he was famed for knowledge round the 
country side. As I have preserved every ' reward of 
merit,' I can show my character as a scholar, by many 
documents higher in authority than tins that I am pen- 
ning. In the latter part of my pupilage, I was as is 
said of a bishop, translated to an academy, where I read 
JEsop, Corderius, and other classic authors, in the ori- 
ginal Latin, But in reading the Roman poets, my pre- 
cious religion-, (like the profane soldier's) was in danger. 
I was ready to admit the truth of what I heard at chinch, 
but I could not feel it; yet there was not a gorgeous 
cloud, where I could not see some trace of the majesty 
of Juno, and in every wood, I expected to be met by 
Venus, nada genu, or Diana more closely robed. But 
all scholars are heathen, and need conversion as much 
as the natives of distant islands. 

At this venerable academy, love soon came to the 
confusion of Latin: Aurora Hemlock had a name, that 
would have charmed me, heathen as I was, had I been 
blind; but her eyes carried me away into a long captiv- 
ity. Her desk was opposite to mine, and we had soon 
a correspondciicc other than that of the eyes. Letters 
and replies passed between us, couched in language as 
elevated, as we thought our sentiments required. But 
that Argus, old Dustywig, who knew nothing of love, 
and tolerated no romance, laid upon our letters his 
huge unhallowed paw. These, he compelled us to read 
to the whole school ; and never before, did I read with 
so ill a grace. But to see how a writer may err in the 
estimate of his powers ! What I had written seriously, 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 69 

seemed to have a mine of comic humor; producing peals 
of laughter in all, and in some, such convulsions of mer- 
riment, that they rolled upon the floor. 

You express your surprise and regret as to the hum- 
ble vocation that I have long and gainfully followed; but 
the ' choice of life,' was with Rasselas, long debated 
and never concluded; and who was Rasselas but John- 
son. In this choice, it is better to decide erroneously, 
than to make no decision. My youthful limits were 
wider than the unhappy valley of Rasselas, but my de- 
sire amounted to a passion, to see men and things be- 
yond: and the gratification of this passionate desire de- 
pended upon some respectable and locomotive employ- 
ment. It is hard to decide, ' when doctors disagree; ' 
but my decision was prompt, as none such were admitted 
to the consultation. The old schoolmaster affirmed 
that I had talent, and hoped to see me a lawyer; but I 
preferred to be a pedlar of tin, rather than a vender of 
brass. 

One of the earliest books that I had loved to read, 
was Memoirs, purporting to be of Edward Montague, 
son to ' Lady Mary,' who at an early age, ran away 
from school, entered himself an apprentice to a chimney 
sweeper, and afterwards broke his indentures, to wander 
in the south of Europe reaping a rich harvest of novel 
impressions, and acquiring, like Fielding, a profound 
knowledge of the two kinds of life. 

My travels, you ask; but though they have been 
pleasant to me in the performance, to you they will in 
the recital be dull. The last excursion was to Ver- 
mont, and I set off with a wagon covered with roasters. 
The first night arrested me at Concord, that venerable 
town that you must have heard of, and may have seen. 
It was in the canicular, or dog days, and the weather 
was warm; a few faint sounds had broken the enerva- 



70 TRAVELS OF A TIN TEDLAR. 

ting stillness of the day; such as the chirp of a locust, 
or the melancholy croak of some exhausted frog. I 
slept with three other sinners, and the publican thought 
that the bed would accommodate a filth. If his own 
conscience reproach him not, neither do I, though in a 
case like this, forgiveness rises to the dignity of a sub- 
lime action. 

Let us skip to Windsor : It has no castle or park 
that I know of, yet it is a charming place. From this 1 
plunged into a shady road that wound around one of the 
highest of the green mountains ; and, like Sancho, 
turned my beast loose to crop the herbage, while I my- 
self mused and meditated, after the manner of the Don. 
A rivulet was near of pellucid waters, a little ruffled 
by the wind: casting my eyes into a bend of the stream, 
in search of a trout, (many have I tickled), I beheld an 
object that struck me aghast ; the body of an infant ly- 
ing on its back, with its legs drawn up in an easy attitude, 
and it little arms folded on its breast. The water was 
slightly agitated, and communicated its own motion to 
the body. Near it lay a huge eel, that had perhaps fed 
upon the child. I will never taste an eel again. In 
breathless haste I returned to the hotel, and called for a 
cogue and a coroner. My dismay communicated itself 
to the officer; but with a long pole he put the eel to 
flight, and raised to the bank the body of a — bull-frog, 
of cigteen inches ! I forswear, soup forever. Wei I 
to live in France a thousand years, and the last remnant 
of a city besieged, I would as soon turn Cannibal as 
taste a frog. 

What is the truth of history, when things before my 
own eyes, are thus perverted by the imagination ? Fro- 
issart, I shall never again open with pleasure; his his- 
tory may be true, but what can I trust, after having call- 
ed the coroner to an inquest upon a frog. J. F 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 71 



NO. II. 



Sir — At the dinner which followed the ' crowner's 
quest,' there was a beautiful girl waiting on the pedlar. 
I informed her, that in the Bay State, it is the privilege 
and practice of a traveller to kiss the cook, when the 
dinner is good, and attempted to introduce the rite into 
Vermont ; but she repulsed me, and retired with the dis- 
dain of a beauty, and the majesty of a queen. In a mo- 
ment, entered a strapping negro, fat and ferocious, giv- 
ing me to know that she herself was the cook; and I 
bought her immediate absence with a pistareen. I re- 
tired, and hauled up in front of a cotton factory, having 
1 no admittance ' chalked in a crooked line upon the 
door. On the question that agitates the surface of so- 
ciety, I have nothing to say : in manufactories I have 
no interest, and of them, little knowledge. I am frank, 
and confess poverty and ignorance in a breath. Igno- 
rance is a^misfortune, but poverty is (at least in cities) 
a crime: yet to diminish the misfortune,! boldly entered 
the door with the prohibitory motto, and endeavoured to 
wear so easy an air, that no one would doubt my right 
of ingress. An impudent fellow may counterfeit mo- 
desty, but it is harder, as poor Marlow found, for modes- 
ty to assume the guise of impudence. 

At the entrance I was stunned with horrid and inex- 
plicable sounds; yet the confusion was not like that of 
Babel, for in it the human voice had no part. Placing 
myself in an obscure corner, I looked down upon ma- 
chinery of a beautiful simplicity, attended by females of 
a similar description. At this stage of my reflections, 
an ill-looking agent espied me, and after desiring to be 
informed what I would -please to have, (confound his 
civility,) intimated the propriety of my walking down 



72 TRAVELS OF A TIN TEDLAR. 

stairs; when I retreated, like a Hon from the hunters, or 
like Ney from Russia. 

These Green Mountain hoys arc generally sharpers, 
but divided into many classes: horse thieves are the 
most respected, and hold the highest offices, being com- 
monly sent to the legislature: counterfeiters are more 
esteemed near the Canadas, though rogues of humbler 
kind, and of all descriptions, find everywhere a welcome 
and a home. Where such are exalted, honesty must be 
a reproach, and few men I found that dese^'cd it. Na- 
ture, however, with her usual benevolence, has provid- 
ed for the safety of the honest traveller — who is gene- 
rally a tin pedlar — by having stamped upon these Ver- 
montese, an outward stamp of the inward man; for their 
faces show a mixture of the fox and wolf. Their moral 
courage exceeds their physical, for though they dare 
not face an enemy, they are yet bold enough to tell a 
lie. I have never loved them, since I was ejected from 
the cotton factory. 

I recrossedthc river at a ferry, and travelled leisurely 
to Hanover, the seat of the college, and perhaps, of 
the Muses; though Parnassus has no representative 
nearer than Monadnock. At the college, I sold three 
tinder boxes, and a dozen lamps. Among the students, 
I found five punsters, and one Penobscot Indian — 
4 His blanket tied with yellow strings.' 

Then I went over to Norwich, and sold to tin ca 
three dozen of Knapp's blacking; but no one asked for 
a lamp. Handsome fellows, are the cadets: the stu- 
dents at Hanover have, in comparison, but a sneaking 
gait, like that of a person coming late into church, «>r 
like iny own manner of walking away from the Mos- 
quito factory. The students arc thought to be good at 
an argument, but the cadets are better at a knock; the 
former prefer the ' smell of the lamp' to that of nitre, 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 73 

and would sooner stake themselves on the horns of a 
dilemma, than on the spikes of an abatis. The ultima 
ratio, (as my old schoolmaster said when he flogged, 
and that not tenderly) would turn in favor of the cadets. 

Among the military youths I saw not one deformed 
leo-; but among the students there were many cripples. 
The sagacious farmer keeps at home his strong and well 
formed offspring, to walk between the handles of the 
plough, and whistle in the furrow; but his children less 
indebted to nature he sends to Dartmouth; yet the lord 
of his library has a less fruitful domain, than the lord of 
the soil. 

From Norwich I went to Newbury, over roads so 
dusty, that I arrived in the guise of a miller. On the 
way, (in Fairlee,) I passed under overhanging cliffs 
that threatened extinguishment; and here I put the colt 
(for so I have called my beast for fifteen years) to the 
top of his speed. The cliffs reminded me of what I had 
read at the end of Johnson's dictionary, of the Tarpeian, 
and the rock of Leucate : traitors were thrown from the 
one, and lovers leaped from the other; but for him who 
was a traitor in love, there seems to have been no ade- 
quate punishment. 

At Newbury, the hotel is large, and may accommo- 
date three hundred guests, allowing but three to a bed: 
any accommodations were thought good enough for a 
tin pedlar, and I was lodged in the garret, where the 
bed vermin charged upon me in battalions. I soon ab- 
dicated the sheets, for the softest plank in the floor, so 
that bed and board were convertible terms. But I be- 
came nervous; for, though I am not an instrument, or 
thing to be played upon, yet am I sometimes out of tune. 
But at last, sleep descended upon my eyelids, and, in 
my dreams, I was on an island, shaded with palms, in a 
sea abounding with turtle and clams. Fruits were above, 
7 



74 TRAVELS OF A TIN PIDLAR. 

and flowers beneath; on one side was a babbling stream 
let, and a murmuring cherub on the other. But a yell, 
sharper than a war-whoop, broke upon my slumbers; 
first came a long and wailing note, as of a trumpet on a 
deserted battle field; then blended sounds of rage and 
pain, such as only two fighting cats, or demons, could 
produce, and such as Rossini could not survive. I dis- 
charged my ire upon them in a billet of wood, which 
' peppered ' some of them. 

Then I slept, and was again upon my tropical island, 
but everything there was changed; thistles occupied 
the place of flowers, and the fruits were chokeberries 
and crabs. I saw a track in the sand, and, like Crusoe, 
started with horror, for it was the track of a cat. My 
cherub companion seemed furred to the eyes, when I 
would have taken her hand, she scratched me, and when 
I would have snatched a salute, I was repulsed by an 
abatis of whiskers. Then I was all at once a mouse, 
and what is worse, I had no hole to creep into, for near 
me was an enormous cat, whose eye was fascination to 
mine. 

I was roused by a loud and confused sound, compos- 
ed of many discords; it was a simultaneous opening of 
every sharp key in the human bagpipe. It was a long 
anthem, set upon a single note, and the words were 
'fire! fire! fire!' I smelt it, or what was worse, thought 
I smelt it, and hurrying on my clothes, that is, thrusting 
my leg into my coat, my arm into my trowsers, I has- 
tened to the house top. But it was a false alarm, and 
my indignation glowed like Lehigh coal; it should be a 
felony, to raise a false alarm. 

I was again in the land of shadows, and upon my ' isle 
of palms;' in the centre was a furnace, like a glass-house, 
and I was admitted without question or ticket. It was 
populous with idL: - " and operatives, and seemed to be 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 75 

under the command of an old fellow in a flame colored 
suit of asbestos; he was horned like Capricornus, and 
tailed like Taurus, in the Almanack. I kept open an eye 
for a retreat, but could see no chance for an exit. 
Things began to look suspicious; it was no place for 
mirth; but I soon heard music. It was a sound that 
expressed the extremity of sorrow, mingled with a ten- 
der melancholy; it was the music of an amateur dog; 
and I humbly request the owner to kill the performer. 
He was seated at the gate, looking the chaste moon im- 
pudently in the face, and howling like an opera-singer. 
I addressed him gently by his christian name, but he 
regarded me not; I said ' get out,' in a voice of thunder, 

' But still, the dog howled on.' 
I sought for missiles, but all except the fire shovel were 
exhausted on the cats. I took it, and suspended it as 
the sword over Damocles, above this disturber of the 
public peace and slumbers; it dropped like the guillo- 
tine, but not upon the criminal's head; for in the morn- 
ing the ostler brought the tail of a dog, a yard in length, 
and at noon I saw poor Ponto ruefully licking the stump 
Having been unjustly used in respect to my lodging, 
I received amends in the sale of a tin oven, that would 
not stand fire. If you, Sir, desire of me a better fabric, 
I will warrant it of the best; and if it be your further 
pleasure, that I dine with you at Thanksgiving, we can 
together form an opinion of its merits, and I will not, 
like Mr Pry, do you the scandal to ' drop in' upon your 
cook. J. F. 



76 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 



NO. III. 

Sir— After travelling westward many miles, I entered 
a pretty village in the mountains; the people were lib- 
eral and discriminating for I sold many miscellaneous 
notions at a comfortable price. I was taken aside, by 
a good gentleman with a long nine in his teeth, and a 
white hat over his left ear; he was the village lawyer, 
and told me that I was trading against the statute, and 
that the constable (' he looked like a mastiff,') was 
about to complain. Therefore, said he, as Cicero said 
to Cat aline, vanish — emerge — evaporate. I hooked on 
the black padlock, and in ten minutes was on the moun- 
tain looking back upon the village. 

At the next inn, which was of unhewn logs, plaster- 
ed with mud, I was challenged to a swap; but, Sir, 
money could not buy my old and faithful horse. Many 
a cold winter morn has beheld Jonathan Farbink, shiv- 
ering himself, while his cloak was on the back of his 
old servant and friend. But when a race was proposed ., 
I underwrote upon the risk, turning out certain presi- 
dents and directors, as collateral security. Well I 
knew the mettle of old Dobbin, even in the tin wagon, 
where, in fact, he exhibits the greatest speed; even as 
a dog scours away the fastest with a cannister at his 
tail. I touched the wager, and won, also, the admira- 
tion of my antagonist, who admitted that I drove a 
' camfire ' team; for that, in Vermont, is the commen- 
datory phrase. 

At dinner, I held a colloquy with a discreet maiden 
lady, equal in charms to the prettiest Asturian in Don 
Quixotte. Her complexion had something of the vio- 
let, but little of the lily or rose; and she had an eye 
like a boiled egg. Upon my statement that I was sin- 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. . 77 

gle and discontented, she intimated her approbation o 
the class of travelling merchants, and her partiality forf 
an individual; but I tore myself away, and passed 
through the heart of the Green Mountains, to Burling- 
ton. 

The Onion River has some pretty scenes, for the 
river is more attractive than the name; still, the word 
is better than the thing. Our rivers were first explored 
and named by rude and unimaginative hunters, and 
not, as in other countries, by intelligent travellers. 
Here is the Onion River, and the Otter Creek; we 
have also the Big Hockhocking, and the Little Hock- 
hocking, the Little Muskingum, and the Big Muskingum, 
and the Big Sandy, (which is muddy) and the Big 
Muddy, (which is sandy). The Indian appellations 
are always descriptive, and often musical; the Castilian 
language has nothing more majestic than Monongahela, 
and Alatamaha; and the Italian, nothing softer, than 
Ohio and Miami. In the Green Mountains, the for- 
ests are dense and dark, though they occasionally dis- 
play a log hut, and a sunny spot of cultivation. Tall 
trunks { shorn of their beams ' (that is, of their branch- 
es) and blackened by fire, stand like the remaining pil- 
lars of a desolated city, and seemingly frown upon 
those foes of the forest, the woodman and his white 
haired sons. 

Having toiled up a rugged hill, I saw the sky indent- 
ed with distant mountains, which I knew were on the 
western side of the lake, a noble expanse that I soon 
beheld, calm as a sleeping beauty, and reflecting in its 
bosom the flattered image of the hills. At the wharf 
our attention was attracted by a small dark object far 
up the lake; as it approached, a Clanking was heard, 
and the steamboat came rushing on, pawing over the 
waters like a behemoth. 
7* 



78 TRAVELS OF A TIN FEDLAK. 

I went in it to Plattsburgh, where 1 walked out with 
mine host of the Cross Keys, who was intelligent, and 
willing to communicate knowledge. With the forefin- 
ger of his left hand, he pointed to the place where the 
fustian-clad militia routed fourteen thousand veterans, 
who at Waterloo, had stood ' firm for the honor of the 
household troops.' This conflict raged at the same 
time with the battle on the lake, and both, Sir, made 
martial music. Haydn's Creation has some good 
thoughts, at least sounds; yet it is but little to the taste 
of the old warrior who loves the roaring of a twentyfour 
pounder, a clap of thunder, and now and then an earth- 
quake. To say the just thing of these Vermontese 
and their neighbours, nothing less than an earthquake 
can move them from their post, more especially when 
it is behind a log, a bush, or a stone. Sir George Pro- 
vost, held them in unmerited contempt, for although 
they are too sturdy to submit at once to the discipline 
of firing in platoons, yet their long guns were pointed 
with such judgment, that every bullet did execution. 

The river, which is broken by rocks into frequent 
cascades, divides the village. There is a bridge, anc 
above it, and below, are islands covered with bushes. 
On the margin of the stream, are several mills of gran- 
ite, and on the north is a forest, through which runs the 
Canada road. On that road (said my garrulous land- 
lord) came the crimson ranks of the enemy, keeping 
excellent time to solemn music. At the same moment 
their fleet doubled the point, bearing down on the Amer- 
ican line, at the harbor's mouth. 

The invading army was in three columns, one of 
which advanced upon the bridge, a second went up the 
river, and the third remained to bombard the town. 
The column that Avent up the river, attempted to ford 
where the opposite bank was lined with riflemen, lying 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 79 

(said my informant) ' flat upon their bellies.' Shelter- 
ed themselves, they discharged a murderous fire. I 
myself, Sir, am not particularly clumsy, yet these banks 
are so steep that were the enemy in my rear, and he a 
mad dog, I could not quickly ascend. 

Yet the British soldiers, with their characteristic ob- 
stinacy, persisted long in the hopeless attempt. A few, 
however, reached the summit, but it was only to be 
thrown back into the stream, from which they rose not 
again. I doubt if any people will mount a breach bet- 
ter than the English, or stand longer in the open field 
to be knocked on the head. A Frenchman will make 
you a better charge, but his hardihood soon evaporates 
like the foam of his own champagne; an Irishman, who 
trails the puissant pike, scorns ' upon compulsion ' to 
budge a foot, and a Welchman is sufficiently pugnacious; 
but they all lack the bull-dog pertinacity of an English- 
man. A Yankee, indeed, has his good points, for he 
will be tomahawked, killed, and scalped, before he will 
quit his breastwork, be it log or wall. Think not that 
I underrate my countrymen, but we shall win more 
honor in fort, than in field. This is but right, as our 
wars must be defensive; and as this preference to 
breastworks has no connexion with cowardice, Our 
first great battle was at Bunker Hill, and the next, in 
point of important effect, at New Orleans; and at these 
the fowling piece and rifle did such service, that they 
are ' hung up for monuments,' and inspire a confidence 
in their own way of mowing down a multitude. 

The second column advanced to the bridge, and halt- 
ed ; for the planks were up, and four six pounders doing 
grim duty on the other side. Yet the attempt was made 
to cross upon the timbers. The first men that tried to 
pass, were swept away by grape shot, though a few 
clung to the beams till weakness relaxed their hold, 



80 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR, 

when they dropped into the stream. Three times the 
troops advanced, and thrice were they thus swept away. 

Another detachment, was sent to ford the stream at 
an island below the bridge. At the moment when they 
arrived within unsafe distance, the little island seemed 
a volcano: every bush discharged a flash, and every 
flash carried death. Yet a small party did pass below 
the island, and halted opposite to a mill, which was oc- 
cupied by boys like Callum Beg, and who received the 
enemy with a shout of welcome, and a discharge of 
muskets. At this moment, the contest ceased upon the 
lake, and every eye was turned with intense anxiety to 
discern in the smoke the victorious flag. It was the 
striped banner, and retreat was the word with the ene- 
my ; inextricable confusion followed, the dead and 
wounded were left where they fell, and plunder, as well 
as victory attended the defenders. Thus, Sir, have I 
described to you the battle of Plattsburgh, at which I 
was not, and where I had little desire to be. 

From the Saranac I returned, over a route too little 
interesting to be described; but though I date this letter 
from Boston, my travels are not over unless you desire 
that they close; fori have been west of the Alleghanies, 
and south so far, that I have seen oranges and palms. 

J. F. 



No. IV. 

Sir — So great is the hiatus in my manuscript, that I 
now write in December; though the last excursion was 
in summer. In Washington street I found subjects for 
regret, for I shudder to see, in winter, a pretty face un- 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 81 

der a leghorn hat; which was invented merely to inter- 
cept the rays of the sun. 

. He that would build in Greenland a house with the 
open verandahs of Italy, would have a fair title to the 
fame that is conferred by ridicule. Beauty and grace are 
nothing without ease; no face can be beautiful, when 
the body is suffering with cold, and no motion graceful, 
when the muscles are rigid. This is learned and true. 
Rob Roy plaids satisfy both taste and judgment; but I 
prefer heavy charges against parents, brothers, friends, 
and lovers, who bestow faint praise upon India rubber 
shoes; which I honor more than the slippers of Cinde- 
rilla. 

I form my opinion of a lady when I see her first, from 
her dress; (though I protest against being judged from 
my own.) If she wear a shawl, she undoubtedly has 
common sense; and good sense I expect, if her bonnet 
be of fur; she that wears a plaid cloak lined, I honor, and 
if I can, admire ; but when she walks in gum elastic 
shoes, homage is added to admiration. 

This is the perilous season of sleigh rides, and will 
destroy its thousands. A party formed for a sleigh ride, 
is the worst of all parties; and the philosopher was nev- 
er less in the wrong than when he compared the pleas- 
ure of sleighing, to the enjoyment of sitting at home with 
the feet in cold water, and listening, at a proper distance, 
to the bells. This is all the pleasure, with but half the 
danger. I carry to this day the mark of my last and 
first sleigh ride. We were six men in dufnls, posting 
away with the speed of a comet. Our horses threw back 
the missiles, like proficients in the noble game of snow 
ball; and I was struck in the lip by a fragment of ice as 
large but neither as soft nor as round as an apple. The 
scar of the wound remains, and throws a hue of ferocity 
into a countenance not otherwise hard, 



82 TRAVELS OT A TIN PEDLAR. 

Having offered good advice to ladies, permit me to 
throw away the same upon gentlemen. It is very proper 
for such ofyou, my friends, as are predisposed to pul- 
monary complaints, to set at home over a close stove 
when the weather is warm and dry; and to walk forth in 
pumps when the air and earth are damp. If you can 
thus wet your feet, endeavour, also to keep them damp. 
Always walk in the teeth of the wind, with the coat and 
waistcoat thrown open; it is cool and airy, and the linen 
is, in December, a sufficient covering to the breast. I 
have remarked that some who wear the waistcoat open 
on Monday, button coat and all, by Thursday. This is 
a phenomenon that cannot be explained by the state of 
the weather; perhaps in linen, the sufferer,(for such he 
is, or will be,) is as deficient as the Irish barrister, who 
required eleven additional shirts, to make up his dozen. 

If you have the dyspepsia or if you wish to have it, 
coupled whh incubus, eat late suppers: or if pickles lie 
upon your stomach like pigs of lead, eat freely of them, 
for it looks slavish to refrain from what will injure. If 
your employment is sedentary, that is, if you have noth- 
ing to do, do nothing. Take no exercise, especially up- 
on compulsion; and when you find vertigo coming upon 
you, understand no hint to go forth and walk awhile. 

Cigars have my entire approbation, and he that will 
smoke ten in a day, will moreover confer an obligation 
on the doctor; yet brandy is better for him than tobac- 
co, and I recommend it to all. Any excuse will do; 
you are thirsty, or you may be; but anticipate thirst, 
and you will create it. 

If your laundress wishes well also to the faculty, she 
will give you damp shirts, and the chambermaid can lay 
them under obligations, by wet sheets. It was but late- 
ly, that I slept in such, and at midnight, my own shiver- 
ing awoke me. Indescribable pains afflicted me, and I 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 83 

roared like a lion; raising the house, and perhaps the 
dead. The remedies were as hard as the malady; a 
red hot trencher was applied, and it succeeded, in re- 
moving the pain to the outside. In the morning I was 
so much relieved that I could walk with moderation, and 
my first employment was to purchase a warming pan, 
which shall go with me till I die. I will never again 
tempt unknown sheets till I have sounded them with the 
pan; I would sooner trust the bed of Procrustes or Gua- 
tamozin, than commit myself to unaired sheets, in win- 
ter. 

When you feel a general depression, and a growing 
ill humour, which you deem the attendants of incipient 
disease; if you are unskilled in medical practice, apply 
at once to a medical book. Then try the patent medi- 
cines; they are all of them warranted to destroy many 
diseases of a contrary description; and when they fail 
with the diseases, may succeed upon the patient. In 
selecting them, choose those whose labels promise the 
most, for faith operates better than a charm. 

I suppose that you ride often, and drive well, that is, 
fast; I hesitate not to believe that you can turn a corner, 
at the speed of twelve miles an hour, with a conven- 
ient disregard for your own neck and utter indifference 
for the lives of passengers. This shows spirit, and what 
is better, a desire to patronise the learned professions. 
When you see an old woman, crossing the street before 
you, endeavour to cut off her retreat; and when she 
stands, (like a statue of wonder,) with raised eyes and 
uplifted hands, not knowing which way to run, give the 
rein to your horse. If this should break no bones, some- 
thing may ensue in the way of hysterics. 

If you are of the heroic, or hasty temperament, be 
pugnacious in action; never settle a dispute without a 
battle; for peace is never more firm than after war. It 



84 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

is majestic to fight it out; and if the gods look down with 
favor on one brave man struggling- with adversity, it must 
give them pleasure to see two men struggling together. 
If you love the doctor, I would advise to a ' rough and 
tumble, ' rather than a systematic set to; for I have 
known very pretty sprains come from a back hug, and a 
beautiful fracture from a kick in the shin. The ribs 
however afford the finest practice both to the pugilist 
and the surgeon, as the former may dance round them 
(as the phrase is) like a cooper round a barrel. But 
never pull your adversary's nose; though you may 'tip 
him the lion, ' that is, flatten it upon his face, like Mi- 
chael Angelo's. 

But gratitude never follows good advice; therefore no 
more'of it. In Milk street I came upon a crowd of idlers. 
Every eye was upon an old elm, and in the branches I 
discovered one of the birds, sacred to Minerva, whose 
reception in our Thracian city intimated little honor for 
the goddess; yet the countenance of the bird was rather 
in sorrow than in anger. He had chosen his station for 
defence and was victualled for a siege; for he grasped 
in his left claw a rat, 

' By a mousing owl hawk'd at and killed.' 
many a missile of ice was aimed at him ; and when they 
ruffled a feather, he would look down upon his assail- 
ants, with a stare of wonder and of solemn indignation: 
yet ever and anon he tasted his venison with an air of 
grave and unutterable satisfaction. I left him to finish 
his meal, and went away under the fear that he would 
soon be finished himself; for a spOrtsman come up with 
a gun and bag, but I desired not to see the murder. I 
myself was born in a wood and have for the sylvan peo- 
ple a fellow feeling. 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 85 

I am wiser than Cassar who might have lived had he 
believed in omens: yet the arrival of this owl I cannot 
expound. Did he come in reference to the assembled 
wisdom of the commonwealth, then why did he not perch 
upon the capitol, or the back of the codfish itself. Per- 
haps he came like me to see the people, and to moral- 
ize; yet if he made man his study, his subject would 
sometimes sour his temper, and dissolve the pearl of 
his benevolence, in the vinegar of misanthropy. 

' I too have seen 



Much of the vanities of men, 

And sick of having seen them, 
Would cheerfully these arms resign, 
For such a pair of wings as thine, 
And such a head, between them.' 

Perhaps sir, you suppose that I should have the ad- 
vantage in the exchange, or that I need not transmigrate 
to obtain my wish as to the head. If this be your be- 
lief, I will furnish no more proof for it, under my own 
hand. 

J. F. 



NO. V. 

Sir — At the close of my last letter, I had returned 
to Boston, (from whence you had eloped) having sold 
my merchandise to advantage, and I deposited a cool ten 
in the Savings. I invested another in a lottery ticket, 
which was perhaps investing in the shaving. The 
scrip was bought of a Greek, which was but right, as I 
have a Roman reliance upon fortune. Thus was I ten 
deep, in the Union Canal, but hope was before me and 
that was worth half the money. 



86 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

Having taken in goods for another excursion, I gave 
old Dobbin the rein, which was in other words, permis- 
sion to retire at the rate of nine to the hour ; and when 
the stars began to twinkle, we were at Pawtucket. The 
falls constituted in their natural state, a very pretty cas- 
cade; but the encroachment of wheel and spindle, has 
been at variance with the picturesque. 

Even now the fall is in itself well enough; but it lacks 
accompaniments, trimmings, binding. The frame is 
wanting, though the picture is good. In the golden age 
of bow and arrow, moccasin and blanket, the banks were 
shaded with pine; but now the river runs between two 
mis-shapen cotton factories. Yet when the waters are 
high, it is a pleasant sight to see them foaming over the 
rocks. 

There is something in a water fall, as in a fire, that 
attracts the eye of man and beast. Gentle reader, — 
or reader is a better phrase, for I know you not, and 
have my doubts ; raise your eye to the pleasant family- 
circlelo which you are reading this narrative,- and you 
will find every eye upon the fire, and no exception lies 
to cat or terrier. A waterfall has the same attraction 
to the eye, even where we have seen it a thousand times; 
and two men upon the bridge, driving a bargain in cotton, 
will- look steadily at the torrent. Below the falls is 
an abyss, where the water boils up as in a cauldron; by 
the side of it is a building of six stories, from the roof of 
which I have seen young tritons plunge into the gulf, in 
a way that would astonish a Sicilian diver. 

I went over the very best of roads, to Providence; 
where I was shaved by a barber so learned, that he posed 
me on the Greek articles; and he shaved as well as 
he spoke. I emerged with a smooth chin, or as Milton 
says, shorn of my beams; and ran against a lady of a 
thousand attractions; she received with indulgence my 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 87 

confused apology, and desired that I would not distress 
myself. But I did distress myself, for sweetness was in 
her voice, and soul in her eyes. It is said that the la- 
dies of Providence, are the most beautiful in the Repub- 
lic, and I doubt if the rule have the proof of a single ex- 
ception. For the assertion, there is both ocular proof, 
and circumstantial evidence. 

The bridge is the exchange, the rialto, where the 
idle and the busy ' most do congregate,' to the annoy- 
ance of the females, who must pass through their dense 
and admiring ranks. 

At the college I sold a few lamps, of the true Hercu- 
lanean model ; for the new president imposes such de- 
lightful tasks, that the ' young idea ' of the freshmen, 
requires aid from the taper. Good ! I 'm glad of it — 
one of them bantered me on my queue, and quizzed the 
skirts of my coat ; but I proffered him a lantern, that he 
might after my departure search for an honest man. 

Mr M. the ex-president, was ever to me a good 
friend, and never did I* leave his hospitable house with- 
out a tip at his currant wine. The right hand of fellow- 
ship to the old gentleman, and the same Sir to you. 
Something also I know of the great Trismegistus, for he 
was my father's friend; once on a hot and sultry dog- 
day, when I had toiled up the hill on which he lived, he 
ourchased a few of my manufactures, and invited me to the 
meridional refreshment. I was always afraid ofthe great, 
and on this occasion, I went in, resolute not to forget 
the wisdom ofthe Proverbs, — ' when thou sittest to eat 
with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and 
put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to ap- 
petite.' I can at all times do something with a knife and 
fork, but on this occasion my appetite was good; and 
such was the art or nature of the honest man whose 
guest I was, that before rising from table we were as fa- 
miliar as if I had been a judge, or he a tin pedlar. 



88 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

At Providence, I was miserably cheated by a man 
with a hooked nose ; ever while you live, Sir, distrust 
one who carries 'the aquiline.' I have known many 
such, and but one amongst the whole was honest, (mv 
own nose has a little of the curve;) what a people the 
Romans must have been! 

From Providence, I passed to Connecticut, favoura- 
bly known from its habits. The school houses were as 
regular as mile stones; and therefore the people are not 
gnorant, though they are not very learned. Their me- 
diocrity is, however, not in talent, but in attainment; 
they have no large capital where intellect can have ex- 
citement, exercise and reward. 

At New York, I remarked that the men pursue noth- 
ing with moderation; it is not possible for them to be luke- 
warm in politics, tardy in business.^ or slow to anger, 
and redress. The young pursue pleasure with a con- 
stancy, unknown, and not tolerated, in other cities; and 
many a noble fellow is destroyed in the chase. 

The ladies have more of the princess in their gait 
than the retiring dames of Boston. They demand, rath- 
er than permit admiration; but the humble man who is 
writing of them, readily complied with all demands, for 
he admired them from his soul. 

Broadway is, I suppose, named from scriptural allu- 
sions; and you cannot walk over the half of it, without 
a conviction that it leads to death, and worse. On 
each side the Park, is a line of hackney coaches, as long 
as the funeral procession of a judge; and the coachmen 
are the most impudent of Irishmen; they are a nuisance, 
and I recommend them to the notice of the grand jurors* 
Upon one, who jeered Dobbin, I would have taken per- 
sonal vengeance, had his shoulders been a little less 
broad ; but I hope I shall yet catch him alone, asleep, 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 89 

and with his hands tied behind him ; for under favoura- 
ble circumstances, I will surely break my mind to him. 

The commercial streets are like the avenues to an ant 
hill, when the emmets are abroad; (though the best of 
the Emmets is no more;) here is industry and gain, la- 
bour, and its reward. 

In New Jersey, the roads are good, the taverns fair, 
and the publican's daughters very fair; a pretty girl is 
so regular un appendage to an inn, that I doubt if 
licenses are to be had without one, and refreshing it is, 
in a dusty day, to receive a bowl of nectar from the 
hand of such a cup-bearer ; or tfi descend to terrestrials 
to have the mint broken ra||fche julep by the fingers of 
beauty. Yet this, satfle beauty is always too hard for 
me in driving a bargain. With age and ugliness I can 
be as hard as their own faces, but to youth and beauty, 
[ am weak and kind ; many a discount have I made, 
when under the spell of black eyes; and upon my inter- 
est I have closed my own, when a flattering tongue has 
called me dear Mr F. 

The city of Philadelphia is neat, regular, and com- 
modious ; the people to each other are so kind, and to 
strangers so hospitable, that I always take my departure 
with regret. It is an error to suppose that the Phila- 
delphians love not ornament ; but it is in so chaste and 
plain a style, that it can hardly please the multitude. 
The very signs in the streets, are neat enough to bo 
framed for the parlour ; and of these Woodside has 
painted the best. I lodged for a while at the Dove, but 
left it as a quarrelsome house, and found a very peace- 
able society at the Bear. The Wolf is a good house, 
frequented by brokers; and when a lawyer is not at 
court, or his office, he may commonly be found at 
the Fox. In New England, the sign post attempts 
to blend the arts with the conveniences of life, are often 
8* 



90 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 



rude sketches, intended, I suppose, for Horses; though 
they would remind one of that precise period in the life 
of Cinderilla, when her steeds resumed their whiskers 
The Golden Ball, representing a pumpkin, is an attrac- 
tive sign, as indicating the nature of the pies ; but 
Washington looks down from a thousand posts in a very 
grim and uninviting manner. The Eagle, also, in the 
guise of a buzzard, makes a wing at the traveller; and 
the Peacock spreads a tail for his delight or conve- 
nience. 

Where steeples are scarce, it is vain to look for a 
weathercock; and there is but one steeple in Philadel- 
phia, and no vanes, like the aerial watchmen of Boston; 
of which ' thus presented to my mind, let me indulge the 
remembrance.' The Narraganset Cupid on the Prov- 
ince-house, I honor as a relic of times remote ; a token 
of the sylvan men who moored their barks in the creeks 
of Shawmut; and the Cock upon the church, I rever- 
ence as a religious bird, not given too much to crowing. 
His office is high; he sits there reminding men to be vig- 
ilant in their duties, to die for their country, and to avoid 
the crime and contrition of Peter. 

Next in my estimation is the Grasshopper, as big as a 
sheep on Faneuil Hall ; he is no emblem of industry, 
and why is he there ? Sir Thomas Gresham a prince- 
ly merchant, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was once 
but a poor foundling, left in the field to perish; the note 
of a grasshopper attracted a person to his aid; and in 
after life, when he that was the deserted boy, had become 
the friend of his sovereign and the companion of princes, 
he erected the Royal Exchange, and surmounted it, from 
gratitude and a noble humility with a gilded grasshopper. 

J. F. 

P. S. Have I fallen into imitation in describing tho 
signs? it has just occurred to me that I have. 



TRAVELS OF A TIN TEDLAR. 91 



NO. VI. 

Sir — I ascended a shot-to wer near the navy-yard; 
the stair-case had no balustrade, and the steps like 
those of the pyramids, were a yard in depth. I got up, 
however, very well, and looked down through the barrel, 
and upon the city; in the descent my nerves became 
disordered, and I was like a sufferer under the incu- 
bus. Shutting however my eyes, (as I do when I dis- 
charge a musket at training,) and keeping my right 
shoulder in continual contact with the wall, I accom- 
plished the descent. 

I ascended also the steeple in Second Street, and list- 
ened to a horrid tale of the churchyard, from the sexton 
and which, if I believed, I would not repeat. Shrieks 
had been heard from a range of tombs, and when one 
of these was afterwards opened it was found that a cof- 
fin which had held the body of a young lady, was empty, 
and that the body was at a distance from it. This ac- 
counted for the cries; the poor girl when buried was not 
dead, but revived from her trance, only to perish more 
miserably. 

At this church on the Sabbath, I was struck with the 
perfect silence of the house and the deep attention of 
the congregation. In some other churches I have seen 
infants carried that were not taken for baptism; and I 
cannot commend the practice; the first solemn note of 
the organ, generally brings out a counter from the won- 
dering baby and the effect is not good. All natural 
sounds, even the roaring of a lion, are said to contain 
melody; yet I have known some infants and tom-cats, 
with execrable voices, either for a concert or a solo. I 
have sometimes heard the note of the infant, accompa- 
nied by a sonorous bass from a huge nose that is blowzi 



92 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

through like a trumpet. I could willingly see the in- 
strument between the forceps of a blacksmith; in which 
situation the musician of the proboscis might exalt his 
own voice, especially if the pincers were in a nervous 
hand. 

I have been annoyed also, by the falling of a walking 
stick, as large as a studding-sail boom; five times did it 
fall, and as often did the owner set it up for anothe r 
prostration. Why, when it was fairly down, did he not 
let it lie? it was no twig, but I could with pleasure see 
it forming an intimacy with his shoulders, even if I had 
to introduce the parties myself. 

There are some other practices at church that require 
the interference of the legislature, one of which is the 
assuming of such vinegar aspects as startle children. 
Gravity is not wisdom, nor is a sour visage the expres- 
sion of a devout heart; of the two, it is the better to ex- 
pand the face with a smile, than to contract it in a 
frown. 

From Philadelphia I travelled westward, crossing the 
Schuylkiil on a bridge of one entire arch, of the length 
of seme hundred feet. Casting my eyes beneath, I saw 
a little nymph in a skiff, ^\hich she managed with great 
dexterity. The skiff was of a beautiful model and the 
same may be said of the mariner. The toll gatherer had 
a little cur dog (as the man says, in the play ' I shall 
never forget that dog ') which for my gratification and 
the consideration of a fip he held for a moment over the 
water, and dropped him into the stream, the dog shewing 
no fear before the souse, and no resentment after, but 
coming out as much pleased as though he had received a 
favour. 

From Philadelphia to the mountains, Pennsylvania 
looks like one well cultivated farm. The forests are- 
trimmed, so that the cattle feed among the trees, mills 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 



93 



arc busy on every stream, and the barns are of a magni- 
tude and durability that surprise a man from New JEng- 
and. The Germans have selected the best of the land, 
and it has thriven under them. Lancaster is as large as 
Providence, and situated on a plain, though within a few 
miles the land begins to swell and the hills increase, till 
they end in the long ridges of the Alleghany mountains. 

There were emigrants enough to form colonies, and 
they travelled in various ways ; some chartered Dutch 
wagons with six horses for the aged and the children, 
while the stronger followed on foot. At night they en- 
camped, and I sometimes united with them ; supper was 
cooked in the open air, ' Stranger, will you join with 
us? ' was the word, and the night passed away as well as 
in pictured halls, and curtained beds. In fact, the 
sleeping accommodations on the road are not upon an 
exclusive plan ; thirty beds are arranged in the hall, 
and if the most fastidious traveller gets one to himself 
he 'thinks it luxury.' 

Some of the emigrants had neither money nor friends; 
to them my advice was never to beg of a Dutchman ; 
though they might sometimes succeed in asking charity 
of a German damsel, before a boor had entered her heart 
to eject humanity by the collar. The distressed objects 
that a traveller sees, are many, and some I saw that I 
should like to forget. Yet let me record my own mu- 
nificence ; in the mountains I met a poor young woman 
with three children sitting by the way side. Her dress 
and manner betokened better days, and her story has 
many parallels, in the west. Her husband, after a long 
illness that exhausted their slender funds had died at 
Pittsburgh, and she and her children were crawling at the 
rate of five miles a day, to Philadelphia. I gave them 

a. bank note of- Dollars, and took that occasion, (as 

my grandmother was wont in regard to myself) to ad- 



94 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

minister good advice. I advised the poor woman to 
take passage in a return wagon (for which the funds 
were sufficient) to Harrisburgh, where she would be in 
a christian land again, and might find some kind person 
who had no German blood percolating through his heart, 
to lend assistance to Philadelphia. 

If you charge me with vanity, the next adventure 
will acquit me, and I will tell it with the fidelity of 
Rousseau, hoping that the confession will be a little 
expiation for the guilt. One evening as I was riding 
down the slope of the Laurel Hill, I beheld an old man 
lying by the road side, apparently dead ; it would be a 
pleasure for me to think that he was dead in reality, for 
I passed him as though he had been a dog ; I am troub- 
led at the recollection. ' I arrived at the foot of the 
hill before I thought of my duty, and then, I neglected 
it; though, perhaps, I thought that some other traveller 
would have more feeling than I had ; yet I would give 
the best cargo that I ever carried over the mountains, 
to know that some kinder soul took the old gaffer to the 
village, gave him supper and a lodging and dismissed 
him with with a little coin. The Image that he was 
created in, should have been his defence from death by 
hunger, or any gradual cause, in the highway : and if 
my aid could have saved his life, I have no better hope 
than to die as he did, deserted by men. 

The woods in the mountains are venerable, and fre- 
quent cascades are tumbling from the rocks, while the 
noise of birds and waterfalls makes an agreeable and 
melancholy music. He that has a taste for killing rat- 
tle snakes may gratify it, unless the reptile should begin 
first upon the man. I discovered in the hot sand of the 
road, one of the largest, with 'an eye like Mars, ' and 
retired to the bushes to cut a stick; but returned nimbly 
on hearing a rattle in the vicinity of my heels. It came 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 95 

from the mate of the gentleman I had left in the road ; 
I killed them both, and in cold blood. 

The trees are generally oak, chestnut, hickory, lau- 
rel, and beach 5 and on the smooth bark of the latter, 
you will see in capitals, J. F. I often leave my name 
upon a smooth surface ; my graver is a large knife that 
was given me at school for my personal beauty and the 
motto O,formosepuer, was furnished by thejnaster, who 
was himself a handsome man. 

I wish that all travellers would thus leave by the road- 
side, some memorial of themselves ; for these traces of 
a friend, give nearly as much pleasure as the meeting 
with the friend himself. On the covered bridge ove 
the Susquehanna I passed a pleasant hour, reading in- 
scriptions in chalk and coal, of those who had gone be- 
fore me ; and I left my own initials, with a figure in 
crayons, to stand as a representative of myself. My 
life might be written from the materials that are extant 
on trees, bridges, and wainscots ; and I have often pro- 
fited by my own memoirs ; that is, when at a Dutch 
inn I have been tormented with fleas, and recorded the 
incident and my own indignation over the bed, I have 
avoided that couch, on my return, as I would fly from 
evil. Yet, that such records may escape the brush of 
the chamber maid I invest them like Gibbon, in the ob- 
scurity of a learned language. 

Ten miles from Pittsburgh I turned to the left to ex- 
amine the place where Braddock fell ; and an old man 
in the vicinity gave me a flattened bullet that he had 
found in a tree ; a relic, perhaps, of that disastrous bat- 
tle, and of the first field of Washington. 

The Monongahela is a deep and slow river, and the 
Alleghany swift and shallow, which I take to be the ex- 
act difference between you and me ; yet, Sir, boast not 
your depth, for the Alleghany runs through the better 



96 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

country, though it reflect not, like the deeper stream, 
the beauty of the banks. 

I passed a week at Pittsburgh, turning Dobbin into 
a field of clover, and living in a corresponding manner 
myself; that is, I pastured at Darlington's, for three 
shillings a day. The town is an immense forge, though 
I saw no statue of Vulcan. Manufactures flourish at 
Pitt'; I write this on occidental paper ; near me stands 
a bottle of domestic porter, which I am about to drink 
from a western tumbler, and in the morning I was shaved 
well, with a Pittsburgh razor. J- F. 



NO. VII. 



Sjr — The city of Pittsburgh is surrounded, at some 
distance, by hills, one of which I ascended, and employ- 
ed an hour in rolling down fragments of rocks, to see 
them fall, like thunderbolts, into the Monongahela. 
There is a neat bridge over this river, and a better over 
the Alleghany. The Ohio has not, in its whole course, a 
bridge, though there are places where they might be 
built; yet the sudden swell of the river would be dan- 
gerous-rfor I have known the waters rise, in two hours, 
higher than I dare tell. 

The market I remember well; for in it, a puff of wind 
carried my summer hat within reach of a bear, chained 
to a post; and bruin left not one straw upon another. 
In the market I saw wild ducks, turkies, and pigeons, 
opossums, racoons, grey and black squirrels, and veni- 
son. The fish were — cat-fish, snapping-turtle, and eel. 
If you know the fish called pout, in New England, you 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 97 

can imagine the shape of a cat-fish; and I have seen 
one of the weight of seventy pounds. The terrapins are 
good, but the eels and cat-fish are half mud: I prefer 
an alligator, towards, the tail. 

I purchased a skiff with an awning, armed it with a 
musket, victualled it with a peck of potatoes, a quarter 
of racoon, and jug of whiskey, and committed myself to 
the current of the Ohio. The river was high, and the 
current carried me forty miles in a day; and on the 
third evening I was at Wheeling, h> Virginia ; a 
town as large as Worcester, and more lively. Oppo- 
site the town is an island, producing delicious melons; 
over this island there was, on my arrival, a splendid 
rainbow, apparently resting on each bank of the river. 
I came to an anchor, that is, I tied my cable of the bark 
of an elm, around a rock in front of Symmes' hotel. 
At Wheeling, I took passage in a little steam boat, 
which held my skiff in tow, as far as Grave Creek; 
where I lodged, like a muleteer in Spain, at the well 
known and less esteemed house of Mrs Cockayne; in 
which, while the forest has a tree, I will never lodge 
again. 

In the vicinity are several of those mounds, that are 
so common in the great western valley; the largest, 
which is called the Big Grave, I could encircle at 
one hundred and ten strides, so that the circumference 
is about four hundred and forty feet. On the summit is 
a little hollow, like an old crater, and large trees are 
growing on the sides. 

On the next night, I was pulling the leg from a chick- 
en at McFarland's, in Marietta. Here the Muskingum 
comes into the Ohio, at a rapid rate; the waters are 
very clear, and run over a bed of pebbles. 

I knew the two fathers of Marietta: Rufus Putnam, 
and Return Jonathan Meigs, both scions of New Eng- 
9 



98 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

land. The old General was delighted with a listener, 
and as I am a little deaf, it cost me nothing to please 
him; but he was every way a venerable man. Return 
Jonathan had a flock of merinos grazing about the plain, 
and I tasted his mutton. 

The Indian remains in the rear of the town, are walls 
of earth, enclosing., a space as large as the Common in 
Boston, in the centre of which is a raised plat, of seve- 
ral acres. They are the kind of works that savages 
would erect, made by labor without art. 

Why do you censure, in the last Galaxy, my puns? 
Some men like a good pun;, though if a pun be a bad 
thing, the worse it is, the better; and he that will sneeze 
at one, need take no snuff. I picked up a few Indian 
relics: I have a noble calumet, with a tube of stone a 
yard in length, and it is wonderful to me how it could 
have been bored, though I bore very well myself; but 
put up your handkerchief, for I have done. 

To a traveller from New England, it is pleasing to 
see, in Ohio, such customs, faces, and names, as he has 
left at home. A primitive manner of travelling prevails, 
and that relic of the golden age, the pillion, is in use; 
though times have changed in England, since members 
of Parliament, going to London, carried their wives be- 
hind them, on the pillion. 

At Belpre is Blennerhasset's Island, that looks better 
in description-than in reality. There are some willows, 
and a few peach trees; though the boatmen had left lit- 
tle fruit for the lord of the soil, that is, of the sand. 
Peaches, however, are so abundant, that one may al- 
ways have them by asking in a civil way. 

I drifted down, with little variety of incident, to the 
Big Sandy, which is the boundary of Kentucky. Here 
I arrived in a night of darkness, and went ashore to- 
wards a light, that disappeared, after involving me in an 



TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 99 

inextricable maze. Having vainly endeavoured to find 
the boat, I gathered a bed of leaves, slept like a soldier, 
and awaked in as pretty an ague as a doctor would wish 
to see. 

In this part of my route, I killed with the paddle a 
great many grey and black squirrels. Far north, there 
had been a scarcity of mast, and the squirrels came 
down, like locusts, on the more fruitful regions: I have 
seen nine upon a tree at one time, and perhaps I saw 
not all. They swam the river boldly, but when the wa- 
ter was rough, arrived at the bank too much exhausted 
to crawl. I did not see them navigating apiece of bark, 
with their tails for canvas; though I can believe that a 
squirrel has as much science as a nautilus. 

At a pretty French town, where the people seemed 
very happy, I found a poor Swiss, who was going down 
the river, and to him I committed the management of 
the skiff, till we sold it, at Maysville, for half its cost. 
At this quarter, the first glimpse of Kentucky is not very 
attractive, but towards the centre it becomes charming, 
and requires nothing but the olive, the orange, and vine, 
(great wants, however,) to make it the best portion of 
the earth. The soil is so rich, that it is of the depth of 
three feet, and the freshness and vigor of vegetation is 
unequalled. The forests have little underbrush, but 
tall grass well supplies its place; and the very weeds by 
the road side, grow to the height of ten feet. 

Lexington is in a plain that is almost a valley; and 
it would be deemed a neat town, in any country. There 
is a courtesy among the people, that makes a favorable 
impression upon a visitor; and they are more social than 
the inhabitants of any town in New England, of similar 
size. It is a pleasure to a stranger to see the free and 
easy terms upon which some hundred people, from all 
parts of the State, live at Kean's hotel. The hotel is 



100 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 

indeed a Phoenix, and I went away, with the reluctance 
of Major Dalgetty, when the rations were acceptable to 
himself and Gustavus. 

Then I walked to Frankfort, on the Kentucky River 
This is a muddy stream, running between beautiful 
banks, that sometimes rise to cliffs of three hundred feet. 
It winds through forests, in which I tasted the hospital- 
ity of the back-woods. 

From Frankfort, my road was but a horse path among 
the trees, though I sometimes diverged to visit a village. 
There are no people so glad to find opportunities to 
please themselves, by serving others, as the Kentuck- 
ians; though, shame on me! 1 went among them with a 
predisposition to censure. I never stopped at a log 
house, where I was not offered refreshments, and the 
sons of Kentucky had too much politeness to be inquisi- 
tive; though had I travelled in a similar manner and 
dress, in as secluded a part of New England, I should 
have been thought rude not to relate my history. 

From Port William, on the Ohio, I went to the Big- 
Bone-Lick, a watering place of some repute : and on the 
way thither I crossed over to Vevay, in Indiana. 

Cincinnati is, in appearance, one of our own towns, 
having Yankees, as raw as ever strapped box to shoul- 
der, and put foot to the ground for the 'new countries. * 
When I was there, I thought it the most desirable resi- 
dence in the Republic, and I think so still. 

I was wronged, however, by a boatman, to the amount 
of five dollars, in a bill of the Owl Creek Bank; I should 
have rejected it, from its very name, had not the rogue 
affirmed it to be genuine, and upon his honor. Let me 
tell you something of the currency of the West, espe- 
cially of Kentucky, and I will stop; for I am as much 
tired of writing as you can possibly be of reading. Spe- 



TRAVELS OP A TIN PEDLAR. 101 

cie is scarce, and what there is, can hardly be denomi- 
nated coin. A common way of making change for a 
dollar, is to cut it into parts. There are however, private 
bankers, who emit bills, from one cent to half a dollar, 
and I have had in my hand a roll that would excite envy, 
if not suspicion, on 'change, that would buy little more 
than a dinner. J. F. 



LETTERS 



FROM A BOSTON MERCHANT 



NO. I. 

Sir — I do not resist the reasons you offer for the 
continuance of our correspondence, interrupted Novem- 
ber 1826; and it is my intention, moreover, to oblige 
you by a sketch of my early life, for we were unknown 
to each other when both were young; you were setting 
types in Boston, while I was planting the potato in Ver- 
mont. It is inseparable from the narrative form, to 
write more of myself than is agreeable either to the 
reader or the writer; then do not call it egotism when 
it is only necessity. 

I had an early tendency to commercial pursuits, and 
its first development, like that of all character, was at 
school. The circulating medium was limited to pins, 
and I recall with pleasure the first lottery in which I 
was manager and proprietor. I saved in this fortunate 
speculation, enough to be converted into a dime, in 
better currency, and it was the foundation of more ex- 
tensive operations in gingerbread. Here too, my fore- 
sight found its reward, and success has grown on what 
it fed on, till I have hopes to be a Director of a Bank. 



LETTERS FROM A BOSTON MERCHANT. 103 

This is an office of profit as well as of honor, and re- 
lieves the incumbent of many vexatious scruples, for the 
Directors of such institutions are privileged to do with- 
out reproach, in their corporate capacity, what would 
shame them to commit as individuals; though I would 
not have you believe that I shall claim for myself any 
such immunity, when a Director of the Potatoville 
Bank. 

This, my early propensity to double a penny in the 
shortest given time, was connected with a strong dispo- 
sition to ramble. I became tired of looking at the same 
blue hills, and of seeing the same hard faces among 
them. But how to gratify (like a Jew eating ham) two 
tastes at once, was a puzzling question; I solved it by 
purchasing a stock in trade of essences, to sell to the 
people of distant States; and as I had read that Vir- 
ginia was the most distinguished for juleps and cock- 
tails, there I hoped to find a good market for tansy and 
mint, and my hopes were much fortified when I heard a 
pilot at the Capes, speak of a thirteen-julep-fog in a 
morning not particularly damp. 

On a bright cold morning in October, in the com- 
mencement of this century, I hurried like a hero who 
distrusts his own resolution, on board the schooner 
Charming Molly, which is, in the softer language of 
Petrarch, La Bella Maria. The bold commander was 
one of those polished navigators that hold up a quadrant 
at noon, and a bottle an hour before. So justly impres- 
sed was he with the necessity of preserving dignity, 
that he never spoke to his mate and three men without 
an oath, and an epithet to mark the distance between 
them. His oaths were of the plain swearing that a 
sailor practices, for he was not so picturesque or figura- 
tive, that 

' He could not ope 
His mouth but out there flew a trope,' 



104 LETTERS FROM A 

yet, when Captain Bacon's lips parted, you seldom 
failed to hear a d — n, for curses fell from them as the 
pearls and rubies dropped from those of the good child 
in the fairy tale. 

The cOok was not educated in a French kitchen, nor 
had he ever heard of Monsieur Ude, though his life, 
like Very's, had been devoted to the useful arts. He 
made chowder to a charm, though he was not so neat 
as Doctor Mott in his person. Would I were a painter 
that T might draw him, in a red cap and black whiskers — 
with a gold ring in one ear, and an eagle and motto im- 
printed with blue ink upon his arm. His brow he 
would wipe on the sleeve of his jacket, which had be- 
come glazed and varnished, and he would brush away 
the shish from his fingers on that part of his trowsers 
that enclosed the thigh, so that his dress was saturated 
like a fisherman's boots, and turned water like the 
breast of a duck. 

The wind came (in the captain's phrase) from the 
norrard, when we spread a canvass whose patches in- 
dicated long service. You have never sailed beyond 
Nantasket, and know nothing of the sea; therefore I 
will describe the voyage as carelessly as I can. 

Time, that gallops with a'rogue to the gallows, crawls 
with an honest man at sea. It hung like a millstone 
about our necks, and he that could devise a way to~ 
hasten it along was a public benefactor. We had a 
dreadful calm of three days near Plymouth, when wo 
went ashore for lobsters and clams. I strolled like a 
hyena among the graves, for I am goule enough to en- 
joy an old epitaph; and strange are the names one finds 
recorded on slate in the churchyard at Plymouth. 
There is Truth, Hope, Charity, Love, Temperance, 
Mercy, (written Marcy) Wait-still, Experience, Rejoice, 
Lamentation, Welcome, et cetera. It put me back to 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 105 

the time of the Roundheads to see such names; you 
will find a jury of them in Hume, and another in the 
Pilgrim's Progress, and this is the panel, though I like 
their names so little, that if they were arrayed against 
me, like the Irishman I would challenge every man of 
them— Mr Blindman, Mr No Good, Mr Malice, Mr 
Lovelust, Mr Liveloose, Mr Heady, Mr Highmind, Mi- 
Enmity, Mr Liar, Mr Cruelty, Mr Hatelight, and Mr 
Implacable. ^ 

The commander went with me on shore, and I attach- 
ed to his collar a rope's end of the exact shape and ap- 
pearance of a queue; and it hung down his shoulders a 
distinguished ornament of the whole man. Even now 
I smile as I recall the figure he made as he paced the 
street with a gravity that was deepened to offended 
dignity, by the unaccountable merriment of the passen- 
gers. 

When we had rounded Cape Cod, and fairly entered 
the) ' Mare Magnum,' we were dying of nothing to do — ■ 
sometimes, however, we would murder a poor porpoise 
as he glanced around the bows, and ' incarnadine ' the 
sea with his innocent blood. At other times we would 
jatch with a baited hook, a storm petrel, or Mother Ca- 
rey's Chicken, though I should not be justified in prais- 
ing the taste of Mrs Carey's poultry. 

A shark gave us his company till our good under- 
standing was interrupted. The cook had so fed him 
with bone and gristle, that he would snap like a spaniel 
at what fell overboard, and he bolted instantly a red hot 
potato that I dropped upon his shovel nose. It was in 
his belly but a moment, before he discovered that it 
would burn, when he cut an indescribable caper that 
delighted us exceedingly, and went to sea in a manner 
that denoted inquietude. 



106 LETTERS FROM A 

Sailors and Highlanders, from sheer idleness, are 
great prognosticators of the weather, and from imitation 
I soon acquired the habit of watching the clouds. 
Sometimes at sunset might be seen a low line of 
indentations near the horizon, which I could hardly be- 
lieve was not the land, and at other hours I would watch 
the gorgeous pinnacles that looked like Andes covered 
with snow — where I could seem to discover ravines . 
formed by the torrents and the deep shades made by 
projecting rocks — but all this you may see from your 
own smoky city. 

We spoke several vessels — that is, we held a talk 
with the commanders of five. The manner of marine 
salutation is this. The sails were so disposed as to keep 
the ships at rest; then Captain Bacon, elevated on a 
water cask, emitted through a tin trumpet a sound like 
the growl of a tiger, which was returned like a hoarse 
echo from the other ship — £ Pray, Sir, report the Charm- 
ing Molly, Captain Bacon, &c. &c.' 

It is enough to cure a dyspeptic of his ' thick com- 
ing fancies,' to see a sailor eating raw pork with an 
onion. But at sea the appetite is not dependent on 
dainty fare. 

Having entered the Capes of the Chesapeake, we 
soon after anchored at Point Comfort. It is a snug 
harbor and has a good name — for sailors, when they 
give names, are as descriptive as Homer himself — and 
it is but a short sail to Cape Fear, Cape Lookout, and 
Cape Frying Pan. But lest like other philosophers in 
pursuing names, I may lose sight of things, let me tell 
you something of Norfolk, the commercial capital of 
Virginia. It is in a corner of the State, and composed 
of people of all countries, and of three colors, therefore 
you will here find little of the true Virginia character. 
To describe it from memory, it is a city rather neatly 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 107 

built of brick. But this. State is so ' interlaced' (as the 
Federalist has it) with noble rivers, that it will never 
have any city of magnitude while the planter can ship 
his tobacco from his own door. The Virginians, while 
they escape the moral contamination of a large city, 
have from their vicinity to Washington, all the impulse 
to intellect that such a Capital can give. 

At Norfolk I had the honor to see Mr Tazewell. He 
was talking to twelve men sitting together upon a bench, 
endeavouring to make them believe what was impossible, 
and their credulity was catholic. He had a strange 
manner of casting his eyes. He did not look at the 
dozen wise men to whom he spoke, but his eyes seemed 
to rest upon some object far beyond them, and more 
than once I sought to discover it. The poet's eye has 
high prescription for ' rolling,' but here is great authority 
that the orator's should remain at rest. I myself think 
that they should not be cast down, as if shaded with 
poppies, when they seem to have been made, ccelum tueri, 
or, to look up. 

The Chesapeake Bay is a noble inland sea, and a lit- 
tle north of it you will find, or did find, the city of Bal- 
timore. I suppose that it satisfied you, if you antici- 
pated much. It has grown with the rapidity of a wil- 
low, but- it has the strength and durability of an oak. 
The merchants are said to act upon the adage, c nothing 
venture, nothing have.' Their commercial speculations 
are thought, in cities of slower growth, to be desperate; 
and I myself make bold to believe, if not to say, that 
they act as Rashleigh Osbaldistone played, and he 
staked more upon fortunate risks than the well balanced 
chances of tlte game. This is, in other words, an ad- 
venturous spirit; and it has made Baltimore what it is. 

I counsel no man to trust to his first impressions, if 
they are unfavorable, and he has the tooth-ache. Like 



108 LETTERS FROM A 

lago, I was ' troubled with a raging tooth,' and had I 
described Baltimore under its influence, I should have 
imposed upon you the belief that I was in a gloomy 
city, peopled by a very plain-looking race — but when 
the genius of misanthropy had ceased boring into my 
hollow tooth, I looked at the eity and people through a. 
fairer medium. 

I went to Washington in a coach, with five travellers, 
as unsocial as Englishmen, and more silent than bears, 
for bears will growl at each-other. You know more of 
Washington than I can tell you. It has the seminal 
principle of a grand city — the puncium saltern is there ; 
but the chicken is not completely formed; mud and 
magnificence share it equally; and as in Constantinople 
and Moscow, splendour is strangely mixed with mean- 
ness. 

The arts have no very splendid monuments at the 
Capital, and a coat of white-wash would improve some 
public ceilings at Washington — in other words, the 
broom would mend what was done by the brush; and 
this would but follow the old lule — ars est, celarc artem, 
for this would hide it altogether. But if you admire 
the paintings you have my permission, only let me have 
yours to differ, 

I sat myself down in an orator's seat, holding out 
my tongue to catch the inspiration of eloquence, as an 
alligator catches flies, but with less success, for-I was 
in Sheridan's figure, like a rusty conductor waiting for 
a flash of lightning. 

I went in a steam boat down the Potomac, and had 
a glimpse of Alexandria, whence you ge.t your flour, 
and of Mount Vernon, venerated for higher reasons. I 
saw under the trees, in my mind's eye, and by the mem- 
ory of Stuart's picture, a grave and placid old gentle- 
man, that like Cessar, was esteemed by his enemies, 
* the foremost man of all this world.' 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 109 

Fredericksburgh is somewhat below, and contains, as 
the epitaphs say, the mortal body of John Lowe, the 
author of ' Mary's Dream.' He was tutor in some 
family, and like most poets took to hard drinking, of 
which he died. To Richmond the country is dreary 
and barren, having no neat villages like Potatoville, 
and no hotels with red hot pokers in the fire, or with 
even a coulter, as at the clachan of Aberfoil. 

It must be known to you, that I write in a clerkly 
hand, for I give you the ' ocular proof My pen 
brought me to preferment, and procured me the head 
clerkship in a store, (for like Sampson Rawbold I had 
a boy under me). There, in imitation of Patrick Hen- 
ry, (whom I resemble in my manner of wearing spec- 
tacles) I studied men and women, as they came to pur- 
chase whiskey and tea. 

As I write this from memory, (for that journal was a 
fabrication of your own) I have little method in sketch- 
ing, and as I grow old ( my visions flit less palpably be- 
fore me. 7 

The county where I dwelt was named after King 
William, (of glorious memory) and in twentyfour hours 
I felt myself at home, for I possess, in a great degree, 
that principle of accommodation that assimilates with 
things about me. A Frenchman, however, has this 
principle of accommodation in its greatest extent; put 
the most polished of his nation among a tribe of Indians, 
and he will be more savage than they, and among Hot- 
tentots he would be the filthiest of the kraal but here- 
in I trust that my own compliance would be more lim- 
ited. 

At the time of my arrival, the Virginians were shiv- 
ering with cold, for it was the season of gathering and 
shocking (husking) the corn, which is penned up in vast 
quantities. The corn is covered with a roof, but the 
10 



110 LETTERS FROM A 

sides of the pens are of rails laid in an open manner. 
Our nearest neighbour (at a short walk of three miles) 
had on hand, of the last year's crop, fifteen hundred bar- 
rels, with five bushels to the barrel, for corn is too 
abundant to be meted by your puny measures. This 
was the product of his smaller plantation, and was worth 
two dollars the barrel, though in Kentucky, I have 
known it to be sold for forty cents; in Virginia, from 
three to five barrels to the acre is a good crop. Excuse 
the details of trade. 

There is not much tobacco raised, and it is (except as 
an article of export) a vile and worthless weed. Notwith- 
standing that ' old Virginia never tires,' the cultivation 
of tobacco has impoverished her soil, which it reduces as 
much as it does a man ; ' think of this when you smoke 
tobacco.' 

In your republican State there are but two classes, the 
rich and the poor. There, (I speak as a merchant,) it 
is infamous to be poor, though it is the defect of the 
laws to take no cognizance of poverty as a crime. But 
along the Blue Ridge, there are more castes. The low- 
est of them, like some of the Hindoos, eat no meat. Yet 
if they who compose it refrain on principle from animal 
food, they sometimes profane their own creed, especially 
when an ox dies suddenly, or a sheep is found rambling 
in the woods. This class of people uphold the tariff, in- 
asmuch as they raise their own wool. The allowance 
of food for a negro man, is a peck and a half of corn 
weekly, and two thirds of that quantity for a woman. 

To be a slave, is to lie, to steal, to be everything base 
and unworthy. If the body could be enslaved without 
degrading and demoralizing the mind, I would not 
much care for wearing a fetter myself. I have tried to 
get a direct answer from a negro, (or, as here called, a 
nigger,) but I might as well have sought a diamond on 



BOSTON MERCHANT. ♦ 111 

a Quaker's finger. He will make you repeat the ques- 
tion, that he may have more time to frame or invent a 
politic answer. From the slaves there are many inter- 
mediate classes, before you come to the lords of the soil. 

Remember that I speak of a narrow district, and make 
no wider application. The higher classes have not many 
intellectual resources, unless such as lead them to fox 
hunting, horse racing, gaming, and moderate drinking; 
though there are among them men of great refinement 
and literary taste, and all are generous and hospitable. 

Dinner is late, and it is the principal meal; the foun- 
dation of it is bacon. Desserts are rare, except on holi- 
days; after dinner, come cigars and politics. Every 
man is a politician, and talks well, though vehemently. 
Horses make the subject next in interest, for a Virgi- 
nian, like an Arab, loves his horse. 

There is something wrong in their system of educa- 
tion, or rather there is no system. There is an utter 
neglect of the advice of Solomon. When a boy is too 
old to be dandled, slaves call him Massa, and he consid- 
ers himself a man. In many families, however, the 
children are taught to address the older servant as uncle 
or auntee, and this is sometimes more than a form of 
speech. 

A fish-fry is a sylvan mode of festivity; a company, 
having caught their fish, eat them by the side of a foun- 
tain, and laugh and sing, and joke if they can. But 
perhaps nothing is so characteristic as an election. 
The candidate makes a flourish on his own trumpet, 
by giving a modest recital of his own merits. He 
must visit his constituents at their houses, and make 
himself agreeable to them at public places. This of 
course diminishes the distance between the high and 
low, and generates a familiarity of phrase not known 
where you live. You would start to hear of Ned Ever- 



1 12 LETTERS FROM A 

ett, or Jim Lloyd, but in Virginia, it is Jim Madison, 
and Jack Randolph. Rival candidates often meet, 
when in their canvass, and, to do them justice, are very 
courteous and jocular with each other. On election 
days they furnish whiskey, and are expected to drink 
with the people. They are then all seated together, 
look imploringly down upon the voters, and each ac- 
knowledges by a low bow a favorable vote. In elec- 
tions hardly contested, the polls are open several days, 
and riders scour the country to bring in and feast the 
freemen. In such times modest merit is not always 
successful, and I have known a gambler of the sable- 
leg kind, a drinking, bellowing, obstreperous fellow, 
elected by a large majority. 



NO. II 

Sir — A pedagogue passes here at a great discount ; 
and his is not, as in New England, a situation from 
which he may step into the commission of the peace ; 
it is the lowest round in fortune's ladder. In rich fam- 
ilies there are private tutors, but there are ' old field 
schools,' where the master does well if he can collect 
fifteen scholars. I grieve to speak ill of a class — but a 
Virginia school-master is ill paid and worse taught ; 
though where there is so much room for amendment, it 
were want of charity not to hope all things. 

At church the people convene about noon, and after 
service, have much to say to each other, and the Sabbath 
brings many invitations to dine. In preaching, the Vir- 
ginians are as easily satisfied, as the Philadelphians are 
in acting — and who ever heard a hiss in the Chesnut 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 113 

street Theatre. The Reverend Clergy do not c think 
scorn' to taste wine when it is good — and many o^ 
them take pleasure in tickling a trout, or knocking over 
a fat buck. 

The ladies may be ranked with the dames of Spain. 
Elevated, high-minded, domestic, and passionately at- 
tached to their husbands, they unite in their character 
the best traits of the females of the other States. In 
the veins of New England there may be too much ice, 
in veins much south of Virginia there may be too much 
fire. The right medium is about King William. It is 
not strange that such wives and mothers should have 
given four Presidents to the Republic, and to the world 
the greatest name in its history. Do you think a Vir- 
ginian matron indolent ? mend your manners and your 
opinion — you will not see her spin, but Penelope had 
not more constant employment. To every door, crypt 
and closet, trunk and drawer there is a key, and it is 
never turned but under the eye of the mistress — for to 
a black-face every chamber is a Blue Chamber. All 
things are secured by lock, and the mistress carries on 
her arm a basket, with keys enough to set up a smith. 
The largest would answer for a Bastile, and the smallest 
for the collar of a dog. This is a glorious system to 
make a servant dishonest — 

' He who still expects deceit, 

Only teaches how to cheat.' 

The food for the servants is measured out by the lady, 
and the medicines, clothes, and all supplies pass through 
the same little hands ; and where there are three hun- 
dred servants, this employment is above idleness. The 
kitchen is not a place where an intelligent traveller 
would look for neatness ; but the parlour is the perfec- 
tion of it ; the very floors are waxed and rubbed, till 
they reflect the face of the rubber. 
10* 



114 LETTERS FROM A 

So much for the ladies ! what for the lords ? I know 
not what to say, they act from impulse rather than prin- 
ciple, but then the impulse is generally good. 

'The coachman was tipsy, the chariot drove home.' 
They are generous to an extreme, and have more plea- 
sure in doing a generous act, than they always feel in 
performing common duties. Perhaps they would com- 
mit a bad act with less reluctance than be told of it ; so 
that their famed high principle of honor, if analyzed, 
would leave three-fourths pride. 

They will peril limb and life in a private quarrel 5 but 
they would not fight for principle longer than people- 
farther north. What a pity it is that you cannot treat 
a man as a gardener manages his plants. If you could 
trim a Yankee, that is, cut off his ill qualities, and en- 
graft upon him the good traits of a Virginian, you would 
have a man, great and good. , 

I was acquainted with one such, a cheerful old gen- 
tleman, who lived upon a high and wooded hill, that you 
might call a mountain. He dwelt in a circular house, 
that at a distance, resembled a bee-hive. To the south- 
east he had an illimitable prospect, but higher hills than 
Monticello intercepted his view to the westward. To 
Charlottsville it was so open that he could see through 
a telescope his workmen at their tasks in the Uni- 
versity. 

He had, more than I have seen in other men, the art 
of drawing out all that was known by those with whom 
he talked. It did not, indeed, take him long to get 
through this business with me — but I went away with a 
better estimation of myself, and, (of course) a higher 
reverence for the philosopher of the crimson small- 
clothes. 

Jefferson is buried on Monticello, and his only monu- 
ment is the hill itself — ' Si monumentum quceris circum- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 115 

spice.' His grave is of that plain kind that a republic 
awards to its benefactors. It is in nothing better than that 
of the humblest slave, who has escaped the lash of an 
overseer. It is enclosed with a miserable fence, and a 
shingle only is placed to mark the head. 

Having said a true word of the clergy, something in 
the same veracious way is due to the other learned 
bodies. There are few physicians of the lobelia class, 
if there are not many like Doctor Rush. 

The Virginia courts have made many good and em- 
inent lawyers; but there is a large and formidable body 
that may be otherwise described. The facilities of ad- 
mission are such that any man may in two months qual- 
ify himself for the bar, and in half that time for the 
bench. Of the Common Pleas I speak, where the 
judges are of the intellectual grade of our justices of 
the peace — I speak not of the bench or bar about the 
Blue Ridge, for I never saw them assembled but at 
Parkersburgh, on the Ohio river ; and this is in the 
northwestern extremity of the commonwealth — There 
were five Judges, and, as the season was hot, they 
peeled to the cotton, for every one of them took off 
his coat; though in the June session I have seen this 
done by your brother legislators when they sat down 
to dinner. 

Now, sir, indulge your surprise at my abruptness and 
follow me to France. Fancy me leaving Paris in Sep- 
tember, by the Fauxbourg St Antoine. Like the lady 
Christabelle, I was accompanied by a little cut-tailed 
cur, which I mention, that, like editors and kings, I 
may speak in the plural, for I have become tired to 
death of the first person singular. The notes that 
I made in my tours were of an unsatisfactory lean- 
ness ; I only put down, as a traveller should, com- 
mon matters, such as expenses, fares, and distan- 
ces, and at this interval of time, memory will not 



116 LETTERS FROM A. 

come to my assistance to pluck up drowned impressions 
by the locks. But what I have is yours, and were I 
twice as tedious, I could, like honest Dogberry, find it 
in my head to bestow it all upon you. 

We travelled (no matter how) on the great road to 
Lyons. On the left was Alfort, which has a lunatic 
asylum in good repute, and a veterinary college. 
Take good advice — if you have six boys, send one of 
them to be educated as a veterinary surgeon, and he 
will return to America with ' the potentiality of growing 
rich beyond the dreams of avarice.' No physician of 
the c humans' (as they say in Kentuck) will take half 
as much in fees. Besides, a horse is a noble animal, 
and deserves a better surgeon than a cow doctor. 

The next place that attracted much of our notice, was 
the castle of Vincennes, a dark and dismal place, where 
fell the last descendant of the Great Conde. 

The Duke D'Enghein died as became one so de- 
scended — and stood by the side of his grave, refusing to 
kneel, while Savary gave the word to fire. The result 
seems to have been anticipated by those who were sent 
after him, for they permitted him to take but two changes 
of linen, as if he would have occasion for no more, 
though '• you and I have heard our fathers say' this 
supply was more than always pertained to a brigadier 
in the war of our revolution. 

Mirabeau also died in the castle of Vincennes. He 
had escaped from Paris, and wandered about the fields 
till he was half starved with hunger, and (as the English 
say) with cold, when he sought the dangerous hospitality 
of a cabaret, or hedge ale-house. He was seized by 
half a dozen blackguards, who found in his pocket a 
small edition of Horace, and they thought, like Jack 
Cade, that no good man could tamper with Latin, and 
that Mirabeau must know too much for a plain republi- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 117 

can. He was cast into prison, and the officers thereof 
who had probably been promoted from the shambles, 
neglected for several days to supply the prisoner with 
food, so that when he was to be brought forth for further 
examination, he had gone to a more tremendous trial. 

Vincennes is strongly garrisoned. It has a school for 
artillery in which firing is practised once in a week. We 
broke fast with an officer who shewed us the guns, 
which, though heavy, are carried by eight horses a mile 
in ten minutes. 

Our route now diverged from the river Seine over a 
rich and highly cultivated country. We passed several 
villages of little interest before we arrived at Melun, 
which Caesar describes as having been situated on an 
island in the Seine ; and here his lieutenant prepared a 
fleet to act against the enemy. This you must take 
upon credit, for I will not endorse the assertion. 

We went over the same charming country to Sens, a 
city surrounded by its ancient walls, which are still 
nearly entire. The town is pleasantly enough placed, 
or, as Yankee editors say, located, and has an old cathe- 
dral that you would call magnificent — nevertheless we 
made no delay but travelled along the bank of the Yonne 
tj Auxerre, of which, as we arrived at night, we saw 
nothing but lighted windows. In the morning we were 
at Autun, where among other vestiges of the Romans 
are ruins of a temple of Janus, who was a Roman poli- 
tician with a couple of faces; but had he lived in these 
times, I think he would have been no prodigy. 

From Autun our route became more mountainous, till 
we came to the chain of mountains that commences in 
Burgundy, and which it took us more than two hours to 
ascend. They are of whin stone and granite, the first 
I saw in France, where till then I had only been in dis- 
tricts of limestone (do n't print that brimstone) and coal. 



118 LETTERS FROM A 

Here we found a change also in vegetation, for we saw 
the plants common to cold and elevated spots, especially 
a hardy kind of heath. On descending the mountains 
we came to the celebrated vineyards that produce the 
Burgundy wines. It will cost you too much money to 
make their acquaintance in America, but in Paris it is 
at good houses a common wine. It is carefully carried 
on a canal that unites the Saone and the Loire. The 
valley extends from the mountains to the river, and it is 
cultivated well. But in general beauty of appearance 
we cannot compare France with England. In 
the United Kingdom the hedges make a charming 
feature in the landscape, and the cottages, villas, villa- 
ges, and castles, are in a better taste than in France. 
A Frenchman cannot live alone, and I doubt if you 
will find a hermit in all France. Hence you see so 
many mean villages and so few pretty and comfortable 
cottages. The chateaux are nearly all alike. They 
are the most cold, comfortless, stiff and dismal rubbish, 
that ever cumbered the ground, and have the most right 
angled rows of cut box and trimmed yew that ever de- 
formed the sweet face of creation. 

Then the roads in France are in straight lines like 
the Providence turnpike, and seem to double the dis- 
tance to man and dog ; for the point of perspective re- 
cedes as they advance. Though they are overshadow- 
ed with trees, I prefer the open winding roads of 
England. 

When you are in the chair of a committee of roads, 
ever keep an eye open to the picturesque, and your 
constituents will have easier ways. The engineers (if 
such they were) of some of our roads, seem never to 
have gone over the route, but to have drawn on the map 
straight lines uniting two points; a wavering horizontal 
line has no greater distance than an undulatory course 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 119 

that rises hills, yet it gives a coach horse some chance for 
his life ; and it becomes us to have some fellow feeling 
for a poor beast. 

The great number of villages in France make the in- 
termediate country thinly peopled. The people all 
collect in villages, and a labourer would sooner walk five 
miles to his daily task than live in no better society than 
a man furnishes to himself. Volney said that the 
French who were settled 600 leagues from New Or- 
leans, could not exist without an annual visit to the city, 
' pour causer? 

In England, the population is more spread by reason 
of the small freeholds, as in our own pleasant land. 
But in France, before the revolution, the landholders 
were princes and nobles, with extensive domains, and 
some of them cared less for the comfort of the peasantry 
than I care for the accommodation of my dog. 

The revolution, if it did not bring better manners, 
(which Madame de Stael doubted,) created in the di- 
vision of property a better state of things. The divis- 
ion, however, is of so late a date, that it has not changed 
the face of the country, though according to the Edin- 
burgh Review, there are in France three landholders to 
one in England. 

The implements of agriculture are truly Arcadian, 
and carry one back to the infancy of the arts. The 
plough and carts are but rudely made, and much power 
is certainly lost in yoking oxen three abreast. It would 
be better to arrange them ' tandern? as I have seen in the 
"Vale of Gloucester, or to attach them in pairs, by the 
tail, as I have not seen in Tipperary. 

Chalons is a pleasant town as large as Salem, situated 
in a rich and wide valley of the Saone, and it is a con- 
siderable market for wines and grain. It has also large 
manufactories of false pearls, equal in splendour and 



120 LETTERS FROM A 

value to the Attleborough jewelry. The pearls are 
made of the scales of a species of carp — the Vabhtte 
of the French. At the table d'hote, for the first time 
in my life, I had the honor to dine with a negro — a gen- 
tleman of colour, who was not without dignity of deport- 
ment. 

From Chalons we took passage in a coche tfeau for 
Lyons. The boat was along ark drawn by four horses, 
that are relieved once in ten miles. 



no. nr. 

' Dear sir — As fellow travellers should be free, I take 
the liberty to address you with the customary adjective 
of favor, before telling you that in going down the Saone 
from Chalons to Magon, we found it but a muddy river. 
Magon is on the right bank, and has the most superb 
quay, I have seen in France ; and town and country 
from the bank are very beautiful. As we descended, 
the attractions of the scenery increased, and the river 
reflected better chateaux than were the subjects of our 
censure in a late letter. The land seemed abundantly 
fertile, and the hills cultivated even to their tops; though 
too distant for us to discover the nature of the crops. 
The boat was now stopped, that two pretty demoi- 
selles might step on board- They were attractive en- 
voys from two hotels, despatched to invite and persuade 
the passengers to their respective houses. The pretti- 
est ambassador carried us away. This reminds me that 
I was once beset on Chesnut street wharf in Philadelphia, 
by the agents of two steam boats. I stood like Garrick, 
between tragedy and comedy; or, like a man in tempta- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 121 

tion equally balanced between duty and will; or, (in fine) 
I was like the metaphysician's ass between two bundles 
of hay, for I knew not which to choose. I went, how- 
ever, in the Union line, though a button out of pocket to 
its antagonist, whose agent had a pluck at the upper 
benjamin. 

These ambassadors extraordinary, that were sent out 
to draw in the passengers, were not more attractive than 
most of the young women of this district. Generally speak- 
ing, all are pretty, and the exceptions are rare. They wear 
a little straw hat, but the effect of it is not graceful. It 
was at Belville that we dined. 

At Lyons our baggage was tumbled according to 
usage ; the baggage and the passport are great annoy- 
ances to travellers; the passport you must have, but 
generally, too much baggage is carried. I had grown 
wise from suffering, and took on this route, only the 
contents of a bag, that I could carry under the arm ; 
saving thereby the delays at the custom house, the 
struggle and uproar of porters, a great many pennies 
from carriers, and consequently much equanimity to my- 
self. 

You must travel far to find a city so pleasantly plac- 
ed as Lyons; it is, like Philadelphia, just above the 
junction of two rivers; but surrounded by blue waters, 
green fields, dark hills, and hanging crags; though all 
these give a double gloom to narrow and dim alleys, with 
old and prison-like houses. The Rhone is as large as 
the Ohio, at Marietta, but it has loftier hills. There 
are more than one hundred thousand people, of which 
half seem to be smokers. 

The quay is the best that I have seen, not excepting 

that at Dublin. It has a noble row of houses and lines of 

trees. The best bridge over the Saone, like all the best 

modern monuments in France, was made by Napoleon. 

11 



122 LETTERS FROM A 

There are more than fifty churches, and on the summit of 
a hill, overlooking river, town, and valley, is a cemetery 
like that of Pere La Chaise. The French do not use 
their departed friends so ill, as to hide their remains in an 
obscure corner, or £ neglected spot ' so seldom seen, that 
when visited it creates antipathy. But they keep alive 
the memory of the departed, by a thousand affecting ob- 
servances — the graves are planted with flowers and 
shaded with trees. The epitaphs are in better taste 
than those collected by Alden, and the monuments 
are not surmounted by the hideous death's heads 
and crossed bones that you will find at home with- 
out going far; nor is good marble defaced by images 
purporting to represent cherubs in the likeness of owls, 
all head and wings. It is almost impiety to make such 
images, and if they are intended, to be descriptive of any 
thing hereafter, they may in young minds, create a 
distaste for invisible things. The situation of the bless- 
ed has been described (and in France) in such bad 
taste as to disgust the dying listener. 

Our burying grounds, especially in cities, are good 
subjects for reformation, and it is my preference to 
be laid alone under a tree in the country. The 
ground upon the Neck is the commencement of better 
taste, and I hope that you may live to see public prom- 
enades, planted with trees, in all the church yards in 
Boston. 

The silk in Lyons is made in small quantities, in 
families, like the linen in Ireland, and straw hats in Leg- 
horn, so that the merchant who buys and exports it, 
makes more profit than the manufacturer, whom he con- 
trives to keep poor. 

Now, Sir, let your imagination supply a gap in my 
notes, and fancy us at Geneva, a town nearly twice as 
large as Providence, built on a gentle eminence at the 
narrowest part of the lake, whence the Rhone rushes in 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 123 

two streams, soon to be united in one grand river. This 
is the largest town in Switzerland, but the architecture 
deserves only moderate praise. Many houses have ar- 
cades, which are more convenient than becoming. 

The manufactures are of watches, and all kinds of 
ornaments of gold, and I have a watch of that material, 
which would almost discover the longitude, that (as king 
Harry said of his queen) I have worn like a jewel hung 
about my neck for thirteen years, though I gave for it 
in Geneva, but thirty dollars. A little very fine gold is 
found in the sands of the Rhone. 

The population of Geneva is mixed — and in summer 
there are many English. The language is French, 
though generally German is understood, and many peo- 
ple know something of English. 

The ladies are very attractive, and they are fond 
of parties; that is, of assemblies; in which, it is said, 
as many ladies are invited as there may be chairs at 
hand, and as many gentlemen as can be found. 

We went to Ferney, a neat village of eighty houses, 
though before Voltaire came, it had but two or three huts. 
The chamber of the philosopher of the human race re- 
mains as when he left it on his last visit to Paris, except 
that his admirers have cut away the curtains for relics ; and 
the same you know happened in America to Lafayette's 
wig. The chamber las engravings of Washington, Frank- 
lin, Frederick, Newton, and others. There is a little urn 
that contains, or was meant to contain, the ashes of that 
restless heart, inscribed mon ceeur est ici, mais man esprit 
est partout. The attendant produced his old night cap, 
and put it on my head; and while I wore it, I felt that I 
could think in paradoxes, speak in sarcasms, and write in 
epigrams. 

On the return we ascended a little hill, and for the 
first memorable time beheld Mont Blanc, with its summit 
so clear in the setting] sun, that it seemed we might 



124 LETTERS FROM A 

see, at this distance, a man upon it. It was a splen- 
did scene, surpassing all description but the painter's. 
But some of this scenery is represented, by Fisher, 
with the fidelity of a mirror ; and you can admire 
the beauty of the picture, but it is only for those 
who have been in Switzerland to estimate its truth and 
fidelity. 

Before us was the whole canton of Vaud, sloping 
from the Jura Mountains, enlivened by villages and 
towns, Geneva at the foot of a mountain; and, beyond 
all, the monarch of mountains himself, surrounded by his 
majestic court. 

It is speaking safely, to call the Lake of Geneva the 
most beautiful in southern Europe. It is fed by the 
Rhone and four hundred smaller streams. The waters 
of the Rhone are muddy, but become clear as air before 
they have run far into the lake. The waters are fifteen 
hundred feet above those of the Mediterranean — what 
a cataract they would make ! There are a great vari- 
ety of fish, including the delicate species of trout pecu- 
liar to such elevated waters; but I found no evidence of 
the trout with one eye, said by Giraldus to live in Wales. 

The Lake of Geneva is smaller than many of the 
American lakes, but for that reason it is more beautiful. 
It unites all the features of good scenery, lake, river, 
mountain, tower, and town. 

But you will know nothing of mountains, till you go 
beyond the limits of the States. You have, I think, 
seen the White Hills. Mount Washington would hang 
upon the side of Mont Blanc like that small wart on the 
left of my own huge nose. Then among these high 
mountains, you have a strange union of the seasons, 
' Winter in the lap of May,' and 

' On old Hyems chin and icy crown 

An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 

Is, as in mockery set.' 



BOSTON MERCHANTS 125 

We next went to Chamouni, of which you can know 
nothing from my description. This wonderful valley, 
like my own wit, was for a longtime undiscovered; and 
in either case, when the discovery was made, every one 
praised it. It is said that Chamouni was not known to 
the Swiss themselves, till it was explored and described 
seventyfour years ago, by Mr Windham and the trav- 
eller Pocoke. 

So small is the Genevese territory, that in two miles 
we entered Savoy. We passed along a fertile valley, 
through which runs the river Arve, and the vale be- 
comes narrow at Bonville and Cluse, villages of little 
note. Next, we entered a rude cleft in the mountain 
just wide enough for a road on the bank of the river. 
Then we remarked a very charming water-fall, called 
as I think, Nant d'Arpenas, only eight hundred feet 
high. At Saint Martins we rested for the night, and dis- 
charged in the morning the voiture to take a char-a- 
bane, a queer machine upon low wheels; the driver sits 
with his side toward the horse, as in the jaunting car of 
Dublin, where ten Irishmen are drawn by one horse, to 
visit the Dargle on Sundays. 

Herefrom, the Arve is a torrent, at some seasons 
sweeping over the valley. Looking up among the 
mountains, you may see human habitations, in spots that 
seem inaccessible but to the eagle, for these moun- 
taineers build on every level spot that would offer 'coign of 
vantage ' to a swallow. At this season they were gather- 
ing, as fodder, the leaves of the ash and the elm. Yet 
these Swiss are so contented in poverty, that it is sel- 
dom they leave their own beautiful country; but all 
highlanders are strongly attached to their barren hills. 

' And as a babe whom scaring sounds molest, 
Clings close and closer to its mother's breast, 
So the loud whirlwind and the tempest's roar, 
But bind them to their native mountains more,' 
11* 



126 ' LETTERS FROM A 

We crossed the Arve on a bed of pebbles a mile over, 
in a place that seems to have been once a lake. Near to 
this is a monument erected to perpetuate the fame of a 
Russian, who ventured too near an avalanche, and was 
crushed. 

Next, came the narrow dell that was to lead us to 
Chamouni. It was but a small fissure in a mighty moun- 
tain wrought by that geological demon, a great convul- 
sion of nature. Halfway up the sides are a few slen- 
der pines, a covert for the chamois and vulture. On 
mounting to a great height (for the pass is too narrow 
for a road on the bank) we beheld the famed and inde- 
scribable Chamouni. In length it is fifteen miles, and 
its breadth, is about three. There is no green so rich 
as that of the valley, and it is well contrasted with the 
almost black colour of the fir and pine on the mountains. 

The valley is the abode of plenty, as well as of peace. 
Some of the many villages are at the very foot of the 
glaciers, that like enormous icicles hang down to the 
valley. Chamouni is four thousand feet above the sea. 
In such altitudes the summers are not long, and the 
nights are always cold, yet here wheat is seldom hurt. 

You must, come here to find good milk; it is better 
than strawberries and cream. A very white and deli- 
cate honey, also, much esteemed in Paris, is produced 
in this valley. But of late, the bees do not much toil for 
ungrateful masters, for the gains of the inhabitants are 
derived from travellers. 

There are three large hotels, one as large as the Mal- 
brooh, called the London Hotel, so that, of course, 
Mr Bull is quite at home, in the rich pasturage at Cha- 
mouni. 

There are five glaciers descending into the valley. 
A glacier is a huge body of ice, a frozen cataract; and one 
is twelve miles in length. Fears have been felt that they 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 127 

will in time so increase as to fill the valley, inasmuch as 
more sleet and snow fall annually, (for this is no place 
for rain) than is melted in a year; but some philosophers 
differ from Saussure, and believe that the snow alone, 
falling in avalanches from the congealed to the melting 
regions, is enough to save the valley. Your chamois 
hunter will say too, that, taking one year with another, 
the ice remains in about the same quantity, and, that 
while two glaciers are growing, the others are shrinking. 

At the Priory, (which is the principal village,) we pro- 
cured guides to ascend Montanvert, and visit the icy 
sea. The ascent on a mule took me a couple of hours, 
and my companion preferred to walk. The winding road 
was through noble forests of fir trees, such as you have 
seen in Franconia; and shattered trunks, and displaced 
masses of granite, shewed the vestige of many an ava- 
lanche. 

Emerging from the forest, I was obliged to walk. 
Having ascended another mile, we met two English la- 
dies, carried between two poles, as father and I have 
carried hay in New England. Sometimes we would stop 
to rest ourselves, and look down upon that happy valley, 
Having reached the summit, we came to a hut, that is 
called a temple, and dedicated after the manner of the 
French of the Republic, a la Nature. Here a book is kept, 
in which travellers write their names, and as much of them- 
selves as they are willing should be known . On this 
occasion 1 spoke respectfully of my companion, and gave 
a good character of myself. This is but seven thousand 
feet above the Mediterranean, and is as high as I have 
ever ascended. But here the scene is circumscribed by 
mountains still higher; not even Chamouni is visible, 
and our sole reward for all this ' toil and trouble ' was a 
view of the Mer de Glace, or sea of ice. It is as if a 
torrent, fifteen miles long, and one third as broad, were 



128 LETTERS FROM A 

frozen in a state of impetuous motion; or you may fancy 
the waves of the sea frozen, when running high, and you 
will have something like the Mer de Glace. It comes 
from Mont Blanc, and is but an icicle on the hoary chin 
of that venerable monarch. 

The waves are of a light pea green. There are cracks 
in the ice three thousand feet in depth, and few men that 
fall in, return to describe the bottom; for these 

' Are matters deep and dangerous.' 
Around the Mer. de Glace are several perpendicular 
rocks, called needles, which have a resemblance to the 
forms of Gothic architecture, as the pinnacles of the 
Duomo, at Milan. 

We went down the mountain near the outlet of the 
icy sea, which forms the Glacier des Bois, down which 
the avalanches were falling with tremendous uproar. 
Having descended half way, we were surrounded by 
children bearing fruits and other refreshments. At the 
bottom of this glacier there is an arch one hundred feet 
high, that reminded me of Fingal's cave in Stafta; and 
from this rushes the river Arveiron, like a prisoner es- 
caped. 

The scenery in these parts is admirably well describ- 
ed in the novel called Continental Adventures. I know 
not the author, but to one who has been in Switzerland, 
it is a most attractive book. Manfred, also, will be read 
by such with a double interest. It is a magnificent 
drama, the splendid scenery is before you, and the ima- 
gination of the poet has created the rest. 

The summit of Mont Blanc is fifteen thousand feet 
above the sea. The first persons who reached it 
were, as I think, several guides, in 1786, one of 
whom strayed from the rest, and passed the night at an 
elevation of twelve thousand feet. Thus he acquired a 
fever, of which he was cured by a physician, Dr Pac- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 129 

card, whom, from gratitude, he conducted to the sum- 
mit. Saussure forthwith came from Geneva, to ascend 
the mountain, but was prevented by a fall of snow and 
hail. On the next year, with an army of eighteen guides, 
he reached the summit, described his journey in a very 
interesting manner, and connected his name like Han- 
nibal's, Napoleon's, Byron's, yours, and mine, with the 
everlasting Alps. 

We returned to our inn with so many newly acquired 
impressions and images, that the day seemed to have 
been as long as a week; yet it was one of those fine days 
in autumn, so rare here, and so common in a certain 
country, where they have huskings and Indian summers. 
At the hotel we dined, with a mountain traveller's ap- 
petite, on a shoulder of chamois. This is a timid ani- 
mal, of the size of a large lamb, inhabiting the most rug- 
ged and least accessible parts of the Alps. Linne has 
unjustly ranked it with, goats; though like them it leaps 
from rock to rock with wonderful confidence and agility- 
It will stand upon a very pinnacle, as I have seen a goat 
taught to do in Calcutta, where the bearded gentleman 
is placed upon a single small round of wood, and others 
are gradually inserted under him, till he is as high, and 
as unsafe, as a rogue in office on a change of adminis- 
tration. 



NO. IV. 



There is another animal, called the ibex, ranked 
also among goats, and considered the original of the 
whole tribe. He frequents the most rugged part of the 
mountains, and his mutton is not to be had without toil 



130 LETTERS FROM A 

and danger; for to the most wary there is danger in the 
upper regions of the Alps. The expert hunters are from 
the upper Valais. Read their character as described 
by Manfred. I should like to have some such lapidary 
lines upon my own grave — 

Thy humble virtues, hospitable home, 
And spirit patient, pious, proud and free, 
Thy self respect grafted on innocent thoughts, 
Thy days of health and nights of sleep, thy toils 
By danger dignified, yet guiltless — hopes 
Of cheerful old age, and a quiet grave 
With cross and garland over its green turf, 
And thy grand-childrens' love for epitaph. 

In this route we remarked a good many goitrous 
necks — some hanging hideously down, like the bag of a 
pelican, and others just beginning to swell, like an al- 
derman's double chin — I never beheld one without rais- 
ing a hand to my own neck, to see if all was right — and 
a pretty woman in these regions, runs to a glass in the 
morning, (though our ladies' do this) to see if that foe 
to beauty has not assailed her during the night. In 
some parts, (though we found none such) it is said that 
goitres are so common that it is an unfortunate singu- 
larity to be without one, and a young woman who is so 
unlucky, of course, can have but few admirers. I myself 
remember a town in New England, where every man has 
a humped-back, and I lived so long among these drom- 
edaries, that I was ashamed of my own shapes. 

We returned from this excursion to Geneva, laden 
with specimens of minerals and plants, and we had frag- 
ments of rock enough to macadamize Flag Alley. In 
a day or two, we left Geneva and passed round the 
northern side of the lake, which is studded with a great 
many picturesque villages on the bays and inlets. 

Nion is one of the principal towns of this canton, sit- 
uated at the foot of a hill, with a fine view of the 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 131 

lake, Geneva at one end, Vevay at the other, and the 
magnificent Alps in front. When you come to this 
country, you can only look on and wonder — there is 
nothing like it on earth — and in America you have nev- 
er seen anything that even remotely resembles the cul- 
tivated hills and valleys of the canton de Vaud. But 
you can find it painted in the Nouvelle Heloise. 

From this we passed through several villages to Lau- 
sanne, a very old town, and like Boston, built upon 
three hills. The climate is mild and healthy, but the 
town has not many attractions, except the urbanity and 
hospitality of the citizens. A stranger needs no other 
letter of recommendation than a good countenance, and 
a tolerable coat. Let me say I was well received. I 
boarded in a private family, for a small sum, and was 
forthwith made known to all whom I wished to know. 
Many English reside here to learn French and economy. 

The prospect from the terrace of the cathedral is one 
of the most charming in Switzerland. The country is 
rich in vines, and the grapes were better than I had ev- 
er seen before. The vineyards are at the foot of the 
mountains near the lake. The mountains rise like the 
walls of an amphitheatre, and spread above the vine- 
yards a dark circle of pines — on the other side, are the 
rocks of Mellierie, and in the distance, the shining gla- 
ciers of the Haut Valais. There is a peculiar adapta- 
tion to the country around Clarens, of the persons and 
events, that Rousseau has connected with it. Clarens is 
a league beyond Vevay, but I saw no house good 
enough for the husband of Julia, nor any pleasure ground 
worthy of much praise. Here the lake is narrow, and 
the character of its scenery, and of the mountains, was 
that of the Highlands of Scotland, but it is not easy to 
rove about here without having the mind filled with the 
creations of Rousseau, wretch as he was, by his own 
confessions. 



132 LETTERS FROM A 

From Moudon in the Pays de Vaud we pursued our 
route over fine pastures filled with herds of cattle, and 
through forests, richer in autumnal hues than I had seen 
except in America. We passed some villages that had 
Roman remains, as walls, and a column that seemed to 
have formed part of the portico of a temple. This I 
think was Avanche, called by the Romans Aventicum. 
From this we went to Murten, pleasantly situated on a 
lake of the same name, and ascended a hill from which 
we saw the lake Neufchatel, and from this we went to 
Berne, where we arrived late at night. Berne is sit- 
uated on an eminence, remarkably well built, paved, 
and surrounded by water. There are about ten thou- 
sand people, and the climate is so healthy that one in 
four attains to the age of seventy. The things at Berne 
most worthy of notice, are the cathedral, the museum, 
and the walk on the ramparts which are sixty feet high. 
A student once was carried over the ramparts by a frac- 
tious horse; the horse was killed but the rider escaped 
with a broken leg. There is a monument to mark the 
spot of this adventure. Berne is the best cultivated of 
all the cantons; from this walk there is one of the best 
views in Switzerland. The lofty mountain Grindelwald 
is distinctly seen, and in this canton are some of the 
highest of the mountains. 

At Berne there is an annual meeting of the sharp 
shooters, and of the wrestlers. You and I can remem- 
ber when a tight lad in New England was not afraid of 
a fall upon the turf, on town meeting days — but there is 
scarce a relic of these good old times, unless in a few 
towns towards the Cape, where two parishes sometimes 
send their champions to wrestle. Here they sputter 
in an execrable lingo, though they write good German. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 133 

Two leagues from Berne is the celebrated institution 
visited by all travellers, where young men are instructed 
in the principles of agriculture. 

From Berne, we journied delightfully, roving about 
somewhat at random, admiring the picturesque scenery 
and costume, for some of the dresses of the peasants are 
so arranged as to resemble the wings of a butterfly. 

Lucerne is at the head of its lake, where the river 
issues from it. It is on the great route from Germany 
to Milan, by St Gothard. The walls are pretty, and 
they are carving a large lion in the rock to commemo- 
rate the Swiss guard, who were so faithful to Louis XVI, 
and who were massacred for their fidelity. We went 
up a terrace planted with trees, to get a view of the lake, 
and its shores. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by 
magnificent mountains. 

There is an eminence near, from which, it is said, 
there is a most striking scene ; but my muscles were 
too rigid from the ascent of the Montanvert, to climb 
other mountains. I went to the lake of Zoug, and al- 
so to the chapel of Tell, the hero whom you have seen 
fretting ' his little hour upon the stage ;' the people here 
speak of him revererently, and it is not safe to express 
doubts of the story of the apple. I crossed the lake sit- 
ting bolt upright in the middle of a hollowed log, rowed 
by my guide, and his sister, who broke the stillness of a 
beautiful evening and the charm of the splendid shores, 
by their intolerable jargon; and as they knew no French, 
I could not well inquire the way to an inn but by signs. 
Zoug is the capital of the smallest and most republican 
of the cantons. There is no nobility ; all vote at nine- 
teen, and when married, have a portion of land near the 
town. This, as well as Lucerne, is a Catholic canton. 
In the Catholic cantonsyou will find the most churches, 



12 



134 LETTERS FROM A 

in the Protestant the better crops; from which I suppose 
that the Catholics have too many holidays. 

We reached the lake of Zurich late at night. The 
borders have a great many neat villages and churches 
but the lake, taking it as Hamlet considered his father, 
' for all in all, ' is less picturesque than that of Lucerne. 
It is thirty miles long and three broad; elevated twelve 
hundred feet above the sea. It has excellent fish. In 
summer, from the melting of the snows, the waters some- 
times overflow the banks. We followed the shore to 
Zurich, and could see at a glance that this was one 
of the richest and most populous of the cantons. The 
language is German, the religion Protestant. The town 
is at the lower end of the lake on both sides of the riv- 
er. It is ancient, and in the museum are remains that 
are referred to the time of Vespasian. It was much ex- 
posed in the wars of the French revolution, and was 
occupied by French, Austrians, and Russians, but I 
think little damage was done, except in the death of 
Lavater, who was killed by a French soldier while of- 
fering money for the ransom of a friend. 

There is a good library, and the herbarium of Ges - 
ner and his monument. 

My journals are nothing in this part of the route. 
They only enable me to state that from Zurich we went 
to Constance, through the centre of the canton, and 
through Winterthur, where we passed a night and day. 
The lake of Constance is one of the most celebrated in 
Switzerland. It is certainly the largest, and may truly 
be called a grand expanse of water. But the borders, 
though cultivated, are too flat for the picturesque. 

At Constance there are not many sights. There is 
the town house where the Councils were held. The 
oldihquse where John Huss was taken, is designated by 
a grotesque human head carved over the door. Con- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 135 

stance like all towns, men, and things, has had its good 
and ill fortune. It is now somewhat decayed, having 
neither manufactures nor commerce. It pertains to the 
Duke of Baden. 

From it we pursued the lesser lake of Constance, or 
Zeller See, to the banks of the Rhine, which we follow- 
ed to Schaffhausen. These banks are beautiful in the 
extreme, fertile, bordered by mountains with here and 
there the ruin of a Gothic or feudal castle. But with 
the exception of the castles you may see as good river 
scenery in the United States. 

Schaffhau ien is the capital of the canton of that name. 
It is a mean looking town with a population of about 
seven thousand, who are supported by the manufacture 
of silk, and by travellers who come to see the falls of the 
Rhine. The river even just below the town is a little 
drawn into eddies by the cataract, which is perhaps the 
finest in Europe. It is variously described. In gene- 
ral the fall seems to be about fifty feet, though after the 
melting of the snows it is thought to be eighty. On the 
left bank is an old castle, from whence there is a plat- 
form built in the very spray of the falls, and from it is 
a descent by a flight of steps. The colour of the water 
is a sea green, and this seems to be communicated to 
the foam. The fall is divided by a rock into two sheets. 

We crossed over and returned to Schaffhausen on the 
other bank, through vineyards where we had grapes for 
nothing; when we b r t the Rhine on the left to go to 
Basle. We went, however, in the valley of the river, 
and at length rejoined it, before we came to Sauffem- 
berg, where we rested, and the next morning entered 
Basle the largest town in Switzerland, capable of hold- 
ing one hundred thousand people, though its population 
is but twelve thousand. It is built on both sides of the 
river, partly in Baden, but principally it belongs to the 



136 LETTERS FROM A 

Swiss. The Cathedral is the principal building, and con- 
tains the remains of Erasmus, whose festina lente has 
made so many idle school boys. 

From Basle you may imagine me at Coir or Chur, 
the capital of the Grisons. 

It is in a rich plain about two miles wide. The moun- 
tains that surround Coir, are not so high as some of the 
other Alps, and they have not perpetual snow, but they 
are lofty and grand. The town is on a rock, and the 
fortifications were made before the invention of gun- 
powder. The inhabitants are republican in habits and 
feeling, and only one or two officers have salaries. I saw 
some of the military that had served in America, France, 
and England. There is little commerce; some wine 
and silks come from Italy, grain from Tyrol and Sua- 
bia, and cloth from England, France, and Germany. 

The language is generally German, though in some 
villages they speak the language founded on the Latin, 
that was spread in the twelfth century over the south of 
Europe, and sung by minstrels and troubadours. 

The Grisons are not included in the Swiss cantons, 
but there is a league of interest and amity between them? 
and, as may be said of you and me, one would not, with- 
out at least a remonstrance, see the other pounded. 
We were sorry to leave Coir. The people are a sim- 
ple and kind race; their country is richly diversified, 
with corn fields, vineyards, forests and pastures. Their 
wine is excellent and abundant; and if a traveller comes 
to see grand and romantic scenery, he may be sat- 
isfied in the Grisons. 

But as all friends must part, we went along the 
beautiful Rhine towards the lake of Constance, turning 
a little out of the route to visit Feldkirch, an Austrian 
town of eight thousand people. They also are kind and 
simple. The women wear a queer fur cap, and red 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 137 

stockings, which are exhibited above the clocks. From 
this, our route was in a wide plain on the bank of the 
Rhine, where the scenery was but tame; it was like 
claret after sparkling champaign. 

We arrived without strange adventure, for the second 
time, at the lake of Constance; and embarked the next 
day for Lindau, in Bavaria. It is a city of some mag- 
nitude, on an island in the lake, and joined to the shore 
by a bridge. It is strongly fortified. From Lindau, we 
took coach over a charming country, in appearance 
somewhat English, to Ulm, on the Danube. 

I begin to grow impatient of these cramped Swiss 
journals, as well as you — and am about to taper off, as 
old G. said when he drank but a pint of whiskey at a 
time. Give your fancy the rein and spur and imagine 
me at Como, situated at the foot of a considerable 
mountain, (on which is the ruins of a castle) and sur- 
rounded by lesser hills. It is on the Lake of Como, 
for in most parts wherein we journied lake and town 
are associated like man and wife ; though lake and 
lady are sometimes ruffled. The dialect is barbarous, 
even to cruelty. The environs very interesting, — and 
were much praised by Pliny the younger, who was a 
native of Como. Many Milanese have country houses 
on the borders of the Lake, where I saw also the house 
of the persecuted Queen of England. 

We embarked in a courier's boat for an excursion up 
the lake and mountains, and the shores became more cul- 
tivated, and had more villas and mansions. After some 
hours we came where the waters of the lake were agitat- 
ed without any very obvious cause, though it is thought 
to be by the current of the river Adda. We went in 
this course a day and night, stopping occasionally to 
get provision from the shore. Near the head the shores 
are low and sedgy, and the inhabitants as sallow as the 
12* 



138 LETTERS FROM A 

people about the Pontine marshes. The villages at 
night are deserted — and no person who cares much 
about waking again, would sleep in the low lands. Yet 
there are inns, where the people come to feed travellers 
by day, and retire at night to higher and safer places in 
the mountains. 

From the top of the lake we chartered a cart with 
two horses for the village of Chiavenna in the Grisons, 
where there is little remarkable but a rock of asbestos 
with fibres long enough for a small web. 

From this we crossed the Alps, which is more diffi- 
cult to do here than at Mont Cenis. The mighty and 
liberal Emperor of Austria was here making a new road 
to rival that of the Simplon. The road of the Simplon 
will in a few years be utterly impassable — a small annual 
sum would keep it in repair, but the policy seems to 
be, to let it go to ruin, that there may be few roads to 
Italy except those held by its master. 

We stopped to breakfast after travelling fifteen miles. 
It was in a small valley 4000 feet above the sea, where 
there was better grazing" than we had lately seen. It 
was now very cold, about the base of Mount Spleugen, 
whose top was covered with snow. It snowed some- 
what during the day, which was early in September. 
Seven or eight hours of patient labor brought us to 
Spleugen, a garrison upon the mountain. Herefrom we 
began to descend and went down at a swift trot, render- 
ed safe by a railing at the side of an excellent road which 
however, was not quite finished ; some thousand work- 
men were then employed upon it. We dined at a small 
village in the Alps where the Saint Gothard road inter- 
sects the Spleugen. Several hundred mules and horses 
pass the village daily ; or to come round numbers, 300 
in a day. 



EOSTON MERCHANT. 139 

The road from hence is impassable for carriages, be- 
ing only a foot path dug in the side of the mountains, or 
made by the hoofs of the pack horses ; with many pass- 
es so wild that we dismounted to walk through them. 
The route was along a torrent ; one of the principal 
branches of the Rhine. The Rhone and Danube also 
rise in this Canton. 

Towards evening we came to a village where they 
speak the Roman language, and from this we entered 
a wild pass, which we could not go through, without 
a man at each horse's head to prevent the animal from 
stumbling or taking fright. But I have nearly done with 
mountains. Had I ever dreamed that my notes would 
have given you pleasure, they should have been more 
worthy — they were but loosely made, to serve only as 
remembrances to myself. . My succeeding letters will be 
more from plains and cities. 



NO. V. 

Sir — At the close of my last letter I had gone from 
Como, over the Alps ; and I returned, I have forgotten 
how. You may have been surprised in former letters 
that I wrote so little of men and so much of things. 
But consider, inquisitive sir, that while the men of all 
countries are much alike, the Alps are sui generis. 

In justification of my strange silence concerning 
men, be pleased to remember, that my observations on 
men and manners were seldom put down in writing; and 
now, when I would recall them from the mass of strange 
things in my memory, they serve me after the manner 
of Glendower's spirits, and will not come, for the jour- 



140 LETTERS FROM A 

nal you well know has little but landscape painting and 
a melancholy daub it is. As my notes were penned in dif- 
ferent tours, it is not easy for me always to connect them 
in what Tony Lumpkin calls a ' concatenation accord- 
ingly.' Be pleased to supply a few links in the chain, 
and to imagine me again leaving Lyons, at five o'clock 
in the afternoon, and after crossing the Rhone entering 
that plain I have mentioned before. The first town that 
I remember to have entered was Bourgoin, almost en- 
closed by a circle of snow-clad Alps. 

We travelled in darkness to Pontebeau-voisin, where 
we remained three hours under the inspection of the 
officers of the customs. We then gradually left the 
plains of Dauphine for the mountains of Savoy, which, 
having ascended for some distance, we came to a grand 
work of Napoleon and of Emmanuel I. of Sardinia. It 
is a passage through a rock 1000 feet long. The moun- 
tain under which it passes seems designed by nature to 
separate kingdoms, but by means of this passage the 
road runs near to the base. 

Emerging from this we came to a wild glen with the 
road winding along by a dashing torrent. Here is the 
waterfall that had high praise from Rousseau. The 
gradual extension of the glen, and the shady trees set on 
the banks of the torrent mark the approachto Chamberry. 
This city is in the midst of the Alps, in a small and fertile 
valley. It has about twelve thousand inhabitants, and 
is a pleasant city to behold. Here Rousseau passed, as 
he says, les plus belles annees de sa vie, and a low life 
it was. 

On leaving the city, we passed the fine caserne for 
three thousand men, built by Napoleon, and then the 
house of Deboigne, who commanded the troops of Tip- 
poo Saib. We then came to a valley hardly a mile in 
width, but covered with vines, for in this neighborhood, 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 141 

viz. at Montmelian, are made the best wines of Savoy. 
In the same valley, after having crossed the Isere, we 
continued to travel until it seemed that we had reached 
the end, at the foot of a conical, well wooded hill, where 
we found the village of Aiguebelle. 

From this we plunged still deeper in the Alps, with a 
mountain on each side seven thousand feet high, some- 
times naked and rough, and at others partially cultivat- 
ed. The valley became narrower, and we crossed many 
times the little stream. 

The villages that we saw, were mean, and their inhab- 
itants filthy, small, and poor; one third of them had 
goitres. From St Michel, where we slept, we went on 
in the same glen, but tired of following it for two days. 
We were gradually rising, though it scarcely appeared 
so from the increased height of the upper mountains. 
Fruit trees disappeared altogether, and the cold and the 
nature of the soil seem to permit nothing to grow, but 
what the French call Foin. At Lans-le-bourg, we pre- 
pared to ascend Mont Cenis, at whose base it stands. 
The mountains here, are far less picturesque than in the 
vicinity of Mont Blanc, and it seems strange that peo- 
ple can be so much attached to barren hills — but the 
inhabitants under the softest climate in France are not 
more cheerful than these mountaineers, which shews 
that happiness depends more upon the mind, than upon 
mountains. The village has about two thousand people, 
and the effective men are occupied seven months in 
twelve in clearing the road from rocks, ice, and snow. 

Before the splendid route of Napoleon, all coaches 
were taken in pieces, and carried on mules over the 
mountains, while the passengers went in chairs — but 
now you may ride in a coach, or on a 'bay trotting 
horse,' above the common elevation of the clouds. The 
fame of this road is better than that of battles. 



142 LETTERS FROM A 

Did you ever see that antiquated, but honourable en- 
gine the 'great plough' in successful operation? Large 
bodies move "slowly, and with many cattle; and our 
ascent was like the progress of the plough, for to our 
six horses were added nine mules — not a mule of them 
was needed, but the post horses are in the hands of the 
government, which is willing to make an honest penny 
by the hire of a mule. There are frequent hospices, 
where mountaineers rest to give succour to travellers 
overtaken by storm. 

After five hours of continual ascent we reached the 
top of Mont Cenis, a clear lake of water, and a con- 
vent built by Charlemagne, and re-established by Na- 
poleon. The convent is now occupied as a barrack, 
where our passports were examined. The top of Mont 
Cenis is flat. The fishermen find burnt wood at the 
bottom of the lake, and hence its name Mom cinereus. 
The borders of the lake are but beginning to be green, 
though the summer is past in the plains below; here it 
is not long enough to produce a harvest. This plain on 
the mountain is about one league over. 

From this summit the valleys open, and the streams 
run eastward; the descent of two hours is like the en- 
trance to another and a more beautiful world. The 
charming valley six miles below; the olives, the vines 
and the clear skies, marked our entrance to Italy, and 
gave me an indescribable sensation, an elevation of 
mind such as one feels in listening to a glorious strain 
of music. 

The road wound around a snow-clad mountain, whose 
dreary summit and sides added a double charm to the 
boundless and sunny plain below. From this part Han- 
nibal may have pointed to his army the rich reward of 
all their labours, and here it is easy to conceive the 
ardor of the northern tribes, from snows and forests, to 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 143 

break over the barriers, into the garden of the world. 
On the descent we were shewn on the pinnacle of a 
rock a Chapel — Notre Dame de la Neige, with an image 
in some repute in the way of miracles. 

After two hours of rapid travelling, we arrived at 
Susa, the first city in Piedmont, which seemed so near 
from the top of Cenis. It is at the base of the Alps, 
and at the commencement of a plain that extends to the 
Adriatic. We were here on the Dora, that unites at 
Turin with the Po. We were struck with the softness 
of the air, like the breeze of a cool summer evening. 
We beheld many of the inhabitants sitting in front of 
their houses, at work, or singing and conversing. One 
of the first things that marked a change of country, was 
the bread, about as large as the little finger, and two feet 
in length. We left Susa at day-break, and passed on the 
left bank of the river through villages of little note, and 
vineyards with the vine in festoons from tree to tree. 
The only house or place worthy of note except a few 
picturesque monasteries in the mountains, is Rivoli, the 
Royal House of Pleasure for Victor Amadeus II. who, 
having reigned many years, abdicated his little king- 
dom in favour of his son, and afterwards had leisure to re- 
pent his folly, in close confinement. 

The traveller is reminded that he is in Italy by the 
number of little chapels and the reverent manner in 
which the postillion in passing them raises his hat. 
There is also a marked difference of language, which, 
though but half Italian, is much more mellifluous, (do 
you like honey?) than the French. The people also, 
are, as I think, distinguished for good looks, high fore- 
heads, black eyes, and eyebrows arched. Some travel- 
lers pretend to discover mischief in their countenance, 
but I was less sagacious. 



144 LETTERS FROM A 

We approached Turin by a broad and level road, 
shaded by trees, and entered by the splendid street Dora 
Grossa. It is on the Po, and one of the prettiest cities 
in the world. The city is full of palaces. It is in a 
rich plain, and surrounded by Boulevards, which make 
a fine promenade. On the north are those snowy Alps, 
that were once some barrier, but cannot now keep the 
Goth from Italy. The city has about sixty thousand 
people. At their head is Carlo Felice, who is hand- 
some enough for a king, but as plain a man as was ever 
carved in marble. He is surrounded by a good many 
men with muskets and fur caps; his mental resources 
are not so great in themselves, that he ever misses an 
opera, and sometimes he has been known to applaud in 
the right place, but in general those parts of the per- 
formance that give most delight to the children, give 
also the greatest pleasure to the king. He has some 
other tastes in unison, and is seldom to be seen without 
a bit of candy — but how much better is that than to 
chew tobacco ! To tell you all that I know personally 
of kings, which according to the proverb quoted by 
Montrose to Jenny Deans, are c kittle cattle to deal ' — 
I once beheld the Majesty of England, and I shall car- 
ry till I die, the remembrance of a portly, graceful, and 
placid old gentleman. I have seen Ferdinand VII, 
who looks even worse in reality than he is represented 
on a dollar. The King of the Sicilies is a weak man, 
and looks like many others of that large class. But the 
most sagacity that I ever beheld in a royal eye, twink- 
led under the deep brows of the King of Sweden. 
These are all the kings that I remember to have seen, 
except Rufus, and Rio Rio, at the Sandwich Island. 

The Piedmontese are in dress and manner almost 
French ; they are larger than the Savoyards, and have, 
as I think, higher foreheads, and better faces. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 145 

There are about Turin few sights, except general pros- 
pects, which are full of variety. The Superga is what all 
travellers are bound to see and describe. It is a church 
and mausoleum, erected by Victor Amadee, more than 
an hundred years ago, in consequence of a vow to the 
Madonna to be performed on the stipulated condition 
that she would raise the seige of Turin, for a good 
Catholic always exacts from his saint a quid pro quo. 
The Madonna in consequence inspired the besieging 
general with the spirit of committing blunders, and sent 
Prince Eugene to relieve the city. This monument of 
piety is on a mountain of the ordinary elevation of the 
clouds, and is therefore, if not a castle in the air, a tem- 
ple in the skies. 

The climate at Turin, is like a pretty lady — 'varium 
et mutabile semper ' — that is, it is subject to agreeable 
changes of temperature ; and blows, like the traveller 
in the fable, hot and cold in a breath. The Alpine 
wind pierces to the very marrow, but the ' sweet south' 
makes the traveller throw off his coat, as you will find 
recorded in fable, for I hope you read iEsop. 

I was six days at Turin, but so ill from exposure and 
fatigue, that I wore a blister upon my breast as large and 
twice as warm as flannel vest. When we left the city, 
we crossed the Po on a new bridge erected by Buona- 
parte, (for in Italy he never omitted in his name the u.) 
Our route was through a country of vineyards, with the 
Superga always in view till we came to Asti, famed for 
wines and for the birth of Victor Alfieri. He is, in 
Italy the great name of the age, but his tragedies' are 
but seldom represented at Vienna and other liberal, 
courts, for they have a lofty spirit of freedom that in- 
spires fear to the master and hope to the slave. 

From Asti we went over the same beautiful plain, 
bounded only by the Alps, and Appenines, to Alexan- 
13 



146 LETTERS FROM A 

dria. And the same plain continues, but with no trees 
and fewer vines, to Marengo, a place that has had some 
influence on the affairs of Europe. 

Next we came to the Appenines, which are without 
the forests, snows, and deep ravines of the Alps. Yet 
they are picturesque and wild. The village of Gavi 
is in the very heart of these mountains, and has a 
citadel that commands the pass. From this we began 
to climb the Bochetta, the highest mountain between 
Turin and Genoa, and which, to go up and down, makes 
a distance of twentyfour miles. We entered a defile 
noted as a lurking place for robbers, and I never in my 
life saw a better ground to say stand to a true man. 
We passed safely through, though we sometimes look- 
ed back in the expectation of seeing a brigand, and I 
think that 1 was a little disappointed in meeting no ad- 
venture. A robber, thought I, would not want my life, 
and as to my purse, < what can he do to that ?' for I had 
in hand my last Napoleon, and was going to Webb's to 
raise supplies. Your robber is in Italy a man of con- 
sideration, the theme of minstrels, the favorite of the 
fair ; and if half what I have heard sung of him be true, 
I could turn Robin Hood myself. 

This road is paved the whole distance, and the pave- 
ments are like some that I remember in Boston before 
the time of our Pericles, who is about to assume the 
post of Plato. A man of moderate waist may get over 
the mountain pavement alive, if he will tie his handker- 
chief about his middle and grasp with both hands the 
pillar of the coach ;— but for a man half as fat as an 
alderman, there is no hope — he may at once lie down 
and die. 

But on the summit of the Bochetta is a sight worth 
all danger from robbers and dislocations. As far as the 
visible horizon extends, the sea is studded with sails. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 



147 



The shores of the sea, and the base of the mountains 
are coloured with the pale green of the olive, which 
makes a fine appearance in contrast to the dark pine 
and chestnut above. Between the mountain and the 
sea, is the valley of Polcevera spotted with white vil- 
lages and little churches that peep out from the forests 

of olives. 

Descending rapidly we came to Campo Marone, and 
entered the olive trees that continue to Genoa. A point 
of land, that seemed to run some distance into the sea ? 
was rounded and we saw Genoa, all at once, as a scene 
when the curtain is raised at the theatre. It is on a small 
bay, at the very base and on the sides of mountains 
that confine it in a narrow space. It seems to be a city 
of palaces, built upon alleys, too narrow for carriages. 
The mountains are barren, but more than half way up 
are churches, castles, and monasteries. There are 
many fountains which in these narrow and shaded streets, 
give a refreshing coolness to a summer noon. The port 
is made by two moles and is safe from the sea, though I 
have seen ships driven from their anchorage by winds. 
We lodged at the Jamaica Hotel, kept by a man who 
had lived in New York, and I think we had a room and 
dinner at five francs a day. 



NO. VI. 



Sir— Many of the palaces had historical or allegori- 
cal figures painted on the outside, and more had orange 
trees in marble vases, growing on the terraces and 
roofs. 



148 



LETTERS FROM A 



Our first walk was to the postoffice, situated on the 
square of the Amorous Fountains, where I found a slip 
of paper intimating that I had five letters at Naples, 
which would be sent on reception of the postage; for 
the king of the Sicilies never goes upon tick with the 
king of Sardinia. 

We thence descended towards the port in a little 
lane having several pretty fountains, to the custom 
house, which was thronged with Jews, Englishmen, 
Spaniards, Frenchmen, Turks, and Genoese. 

Near this is the Bank of St George, and the Porto 
Franco, where there is more noise than commerce — yet 
in and about it is the great mart, exchange, or rialto, of 
Genoa the prOud, whose merchants were princes. Here 
are no drays, but what in other cities is drawn by horses, 
is here carried by men. The largest hogsheads are 
suspended from several poles which rest on the 
shoulders of the porters, whose office is no sinecure. 

Commerce is manacled with a thousand petty restric- 
tions. The smallest package cannot be landed without 
strict scrutiny — and much plucking awaits the wi«-ht 
who is caught with a bunch of cigars in his hat. I had 
occasion to carry from an American brig a small bag of 
dollars, which the rough Piedmontese guard looked 
into with all his optics, like a parrot into a hazle nut or 
a philosopher into a mystery, till he saw the nature of 
the contents, when he uttered buono. 

At this same Porto Franco I ascended the parapet 
which runs round the harbor in a circuit of several 
miles. In some parts it is sixty feet- above the water, 
which, in a high sea, breaks over it. It is a beautiful 
walk, walled in, about two feet on each side, and it is 
four feet wide. From this is a good view of the ship- 
ping in the harbor, which is generally as black as tar 
can make it, for few vessels are neatly painted. Thf 



lere 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 149 

were two ordinary American brigs, which, on holidays, 
excited much attention. It is very easy to see the su- 
periority of our marine in a foreign port. I remember 
that one of our larger ships of war was riding here in a 
gale, and dragged the anchors if she did not part a ca- 
ble. A thousand people collected to the leeward to 
see her go ashore, but in half a minute the topsails 
were filled, and the ship was passing out of the harbor 
like a bird. 

The shipping in the harbor was composed of Dutch 
galliots, English barks, Baltic vessels, laden with 
stock-fish, Genoese vessels of all kinds, half a dozen 
Turks from the Black Sea, and felucca boats from Mar- 
seilles, Leghorn, and even more distant ports. The 
Italians are religious as well as gallant. Their ships 
are named from St Michael, St Anthony, St Charles, 
St Peter, and others, more than are to be found in the 
calendar; and also from La Bella Maria, Catarina, , 
Isabella, Maddalena, et ceteras. 

From the custom house (how easy it is to forget! what 
seems to my memory the custom house, may be the 
guard or police house) we turned abruptly to the left in 
a narrow street with small shops of silks, jewelry, cut- 
lery, &c. Fixed prices, in English, drew me in to buy 
a silk cravat, where I paid a tax upon my ignorance, 
twice the value of the goods, and lost thirty per centum 
in making change. 

This street brought us to a square, where the foun- 
dations of a large opera house are laid, and which was 
the haunt of fifty obstreperous coachmen. They open- 
ed upon us like a pack of hounds — ' A coach! a coach! 
gentlemen, goes tomorrow for Florence, Rome, Milan, 
Vienna, anywhere.' Having stopped a moment at 
Gravier's, the only Bookstore we could find — not half 
13* 
t 



150 



LETTERS FROM A 



as large as Hilliard and Gray's, we walked down the 
noble Strada Balbi, the widest in Genoa, and one of 
the richest in the world; near the end of it we came to 
a ravine of the mountain, at which, is the wall of the 
city, but beyond it are large suburbs. The first house 
beyond, is the magnificent D'oria Palace. It is a good 
emblem of Genoa — dilapidated, though splendid. It is 
deserted — knock at the gate and an old servant will tell 
you that the prince is at Rome, and that there is noth- 
ing in the house to see. It is built on the shore, and 
from the mole is one of the most imposing of edifices. 
Passing round the harbor (in the segment of a circle, 
as the schoolmaster says) we went under a beautiful 
gate, near to which rises the light house, a stately square 
pillar built upon a rock. Here, (on this road) the Ma- 
jesty of Sardinia takes a daily ride, to get an appetite 
for dinner. A great many times did I meet him 
riding by the light house, drawn in an English coach 
by six horses, guided by a postillion in red. Twice 
did I doff my beaver, not to the man, but the magistrate, 
and without return of civility, though once the monarch 
slept. At the third meeting I cut him to the bone, 
whistled, and looked neither to the right nor left. 

On some holiday an hundred or two bells were ring- 
ing — the air was filled with a din of which I had never 
heard the like. On this day the people were out in 
their gayest dresses, and we beheld some that would 
have been pretty in rags. The women wear a white 
veil over the head and shoulders, and it is worn with a 
very good effect, for there are not many beautiful wo- 
men. But at mass, and the opera, are to be seen a few 
beings of another order — with faces that a painter might 
study till he grew mad, before he could imitate, and 
much less could he flatter them. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 



151 



At the opera the singing was good, and the dancing 
admirable. People talk very well upon the dignity of 
the drama, but I am not ashamed to confess that I like 
a good ballet. You can hardly conceive without see- 
ing a large company, how interesting it is— and how 
well they can dance the story of Blue Beard, and other 
classic legends. 

There is a little book of travels in Italy, the Diary of 
an Ennuyee, that is excellent. A sort of mystery is 
kept over the writer, whom we are left to suppose is 
trying to get away, in travelling, from an uneasy mind ? 
but is exhausted in the race, and dies at Autun on her 
return. 

Now, surely, I could wish the lady no ill; but I felt 
an emotion of disappointment in seeing in a late paper., 
that she is still alive and making another book to gull 
simples like me out of their compassion for a female 
dying of a broken heart, who is as well and cheerful 
as good health and spirits can make her. I have no 
wish that she had died to support the credit of her diary, 
though such a consummation would have much upheld 
the interest of the book. In these days all are travel- 
lers; and whoever travels must make a book, or at least 
prose, like me, in a newspaper. The interest of the 
book is much increased, if to the descriptions can be 
added a little incident and character. The Continental 
Adventures, is in effect, nothing but a book of travels, 
in which the descriptions are surpassingly excellent, 
and Anastatius the Greek, is a book of travels, that all 
who go to the east should read as a guide; and those who 
stay at home should read for knowledge and pleasure. 

Why did not I keep a journal for a fat folio? — I might 
have got fame and money, or if I could get money I 
could have fame by bribing the critics. But the mass 
of observation that might have fallen on the head of 



152 



LETTERS FROM A 



the public in one cataract of a folio, is now dripping 
away in weekly letters. I could have had, with proper 
encouragement, that is, with any encouragement, a col- 
lection of my own voyages; and if I were a printer, like 
you, I would collect them even now, print them in 
foolscap, and bind them in sheep. 

Genoa was founded by Janus, at least so it is said — 
and it is true as history in general. It has some 
manufactures of silk, paper, coral, filagree work in gold, 
&c. There is a university with a library, and the usual 
apparatus, and academies of Design,Painting, Sculpture, 
Engraving, and Architecture. There is also a school 
for the Deaf and Dumb, where about fifty are instruct- 
ed in some useful art, and a few of them even in the 
sciences. 

I somewhere saw a complete collection of the insects 
of Liguria — < flies and butterflies— a pin-stuck race,' 
and beetles and bugs without name or number. 

There is a most splendid ' House of the Poor,' where 
twentytwo hundred persons can be comfortably lodged. 
In the interior of this vast pile, is a church that has a 
little gem of Michael Angelo's sculpture — a bas relief 
representing the Blessed Virgin and the dead body of 
our Saviour. It is delicate enough for a seal. Not far 
from this palace of the poor, is (on a continuation of 
the Strada Balbi) a delicious promenade — called, I think, 
Aquaverda — on a hill with fountains, surrounded with 
hedges of roses. 

The aqueducts are called in the guide book, chefs d'- 
ceuvres tie patience, and deserve the appellation. They 
were above fifty years in building, and carry water six 
leagues over mountain and valley. 

In writing of the Port Franc, I forgot to mention 
that neither soldiers, priests, nor women, are allowed 
to enter it. Why? the laws of Genoa have a o-reat ab- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 



153 



horrence for smuggling, and a brave Piedmontese sol- 
dier would die rather than be searched; the church has 
as little humility, and a lady's veil should be as much 
respected as the red cloth or the black. 

Genoa has about ninety thousand people, without in- 
cluding a numerous military or marine. 

Before we could go, it was needful to have the Amer- 
ican Consul's name upon our passports. Two dollars 
is the established fee of office. But as I had a passport 
in English, from the secretary of the commonwealth, 
and had been called upon to translate till I was tired of 
describing my person and points, I got a new one in 
French. Then we went to the Tuscan Consul, who 
gave permission for us to sail for Leghorn, — note well, 
when you travel, that before you visit another state you 
must have the signature of its representative. How 
would it puzzle a Yankee pedlar to have his cart stop- 
ped at the frontiers of Connecticut for the want of a 
passport; in Europe he could not go ten miles without 
one. 

On an evening soon after the first of the year, we 
went on board a felucca boat (much less tban a chebac- 
co) for Leghorn. Midships (as sailors say) was a fire- 
place where the sailors boiled their macaroni — and 
' chock aft ' a cabin in which two men might lie at length. 
We laid in for the voyage two flasks of wine, two chick- 
ens, and a piece of what sailors call salt junk; and 
having of this more than we could eat, acquired the 
favor of the crew by giving away what we could not 
use. 

The wind was in the shoulder of our sail wafting us 
swiftly out of the port and bay, though we put in at a 
little inlet until morning. We beheld in the sky what 
you philosophers call a phenomenon, and such as was 



154 



LETTERS FROM A 



seen by Constantine. The firmament was of a deep 
blue, except in one bright place in the west, where there 
was, for half an hour, a luminous and distinct cross, like 
a catholic crucifix. It was .a cloud gilded by the sun 
after he had set to us on the surface. 

We had heard such praise bestowed on the scenery 
between Genoa and Pisa, that we had some wish to see 
it— but having been tossed so much, rest was desirable; 
and rest we could have in the felucca, which crept along 
the shore, and would have sought some little harbor on 
the slightest commotion of the sea. In point of inter- 
est I cannot think we lost much, for we coasted along 
the base of mountains abruptly rising from the sea, 
covered with olives, and enlivened with villages and 
churches. Spezia is, if I rightly remember, about half 
way, and here the vessels for Genoa that come from 
unsafe ports, are subjected to a dismal quarantine. 
The town is at the head of a gulf, sheltered towards the 
south by a pretty island. We ran down to Leghorn in 
about thirty hours, entering the port at night. The 
port is made by a mole, but the anchorage is an open 
road. There is an inner port for boats, where there are 
a great many from cities as distant even as Naples. 
Several turns among ship yards brought us to a space 
where there were four or five good statues in bronze, in 
an obscure place, and soon after we entered the main 
avenue of the city. We were not vexed with delay at 
•the custom house, but barely opened our trunks and 
shut them. We lived for two days at the Royal Oak 
Hotel, at a moderate price. Leghorn is a great com- 
mercial mart, and trade is not shackled with many vex- 
atious restrictions. The streets are well filled with a 
busy population, and the stores are some of them 
splendid. There are many Jews and Turks. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 155 

There are few soldiers in sight — not more than enough 
for a moderate town guard, and there are not half so 
many cripples, vagabonds, and priests, as at Genoa. 
The race of men and the herds of cattle are also better. 
We did not in Genoa see a woman of the middling- 
classes that was very pretty, but in Leghorn we saw 
few that were otherwise. There are many country 
seats in the vicinity. The hats that we call Leghorns 
are made all over the country, from this to Florence. 
They are manufactured in families, and pressed and 
exported by the merchant. It seemed like New Eng- 
land, to see children sitting at the door with a roll of 
straw before them. 

The English burying ground is very neat — having a 
great many monuments in excellent taste. The monu- 
ments are generally of white marble, pyramids, cones, 
urns, columns, and plain slabs. Smollet is buried here. 
Having passed two days, we put our money except five 
dollars for expenses, into a bill of exchange for Flor- 
ence, and early in the morning entered the coach; we 
gave for the passage (about sixty miles) two dollars and 
a half, but were struck with grief and consternation to 
learn that we had paid a dollar too much. There are 
three stages to Florence, and at every one the new 
coachman is to have a paulo, about a dime. 



NO. VII. 



Sir — On the eve of our departure from Leghorn, we 
took of the coachman a dollar, as a pledge, to be forfeit- 
ed if he should not call for us in the morning, for few 



156 LETTERS FROM A 

/C Italians think of keeping their word, when it is at vari- 
ance with their interest; and the charioteer would have 
left us without compunction, if he had got a better bite 
from flatter fishes. Verbum sat is an unsafe proverb 
here, where men are changed from the like of Regulus, 
who kept his word at the price of his ears; though in 
some countries I have known the reverse, and seen a 
rogue cropped for telling a lie. 

Before Apollo had harnessed his team, (how classic 
we become,) ours was at the door. Our companions 
were a Spanish officer, wife, and little Hidalgo, all 
lately wrecked in a felucca, and bound on a pilgrimage 
to Rome. In the left corner, in front, was a young man 
wrapped in reverie, and a camlet cloak. Being very 
polite in the society of ladies, I began to whistle some 
tune common in New York, when he of the camlet ask- 
ed me how long since I had left America, for he had 
himself lived in Pearl Street. Thus there was a bond 
of amity between us, as he could whistle the same tune, 
though he would not eat with me of the same viands, 
for he had religious scruples touching bacon. This good 
Rabbi gave me the pleasing intelligence, that I had paid 
for the passage a dollar too much, but shewed me how 
to recover my money and equanimity at Florence, for 
which I thank him, for I am getting stingy, and hope in 
time to become avaricious. 

For a dozen miles beyond the gate of Leghorn, Tus- 
cany did not appear very fertile, but as we advanced, it 
became a garden. I think that our first stage was Ponte- 
dero, though I have forgotten the other large towns on 
the route. It was Sunday, and the whole population 
was out on the shady side of the street, in holiday suits. 
Some of the females wore a man's hat, of fur, and a 
pretty face looks very well under it; but it is hazardous 
for plain features. I thought it a pleasant state of soci- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 157 

ety, where the promiscuous assemblage of towns as large 
as Salem, had not a dismal visage to show off, but where 
all seemed to be under some joyous excitement. 

We passed Pisa on the right, for which I was sorry, 
as otherwise I should have seen the Hanging Tower. 
No man knows what he may come to, and the tower has 
a bad name; I suppose it to be the place where poor 
rogues are hung, for the pleasure of rich ones; at least, 
I have known such places in other countries. Some 
travellers call it the Leaning Tower, and think that it 
will stand an earthquake, although its line of direction is 
without the base. But these things I cannot answer for, 
as I have not seen them; I know thenronly from de- 
scription, and all travellers are not to be trusted. 

On our route were vineyards, olive groves, churches, 
towns, towers, and monasteries. The agriculture is in 
ridges, and the fields are divided by ditches. Some- 
times a poor old man would run along by the side of the 
coach, holding his hat at the window for coin. I am 
generous to a fault, and when he had kept up this hob- 
bling gait, like the people on the broken arches in Mir- 
za's vision of the bridge, I would bestow upon him a 
piece, of which eight hundred make a dollar. These 
old gaffers, though they limped exceedingly while be- 
seeching, would walk back very well, when they had 
touched the copper. 

Night closed upon us ten miles from Florence, and 
deprived me of the satisfaction I always feel in watching 
the approach to a new city; for though I am an old 
traveller, my thirst for novelty is not assuaged, and when 
I approach a city that I have desired to see, it is with a 
strong inclination to dance and clap my hands. The 
first opportunity that we had to dance, was at the Hotel 
of the Four Nations, where we slept, dreaming of what 
we were to see on the morrow, though I dreamt also 
14 



158 LETTERS FROM A 

that a Tuscan surgeon was amputating my arm, and 
awoke with pain, to find it extended across an iron bed- 
stead. 

We sallied out early, to see in what sort of a loch we 
had been landed. We came to the beautiful promenade 
along the riv.gr ' Lung Arno,' and paused to admire a 
bridge of beautiful curves and proportions. There are 
several other bridges, and one or more covered with 
shops. The river is a shallow and muddy stream, but I 
believe that there have been found people to praise it. 

Near the centre of the city rises an immense edifice, 
surmounted by a dome, to which that of the State House 
is but an egg-shell. This is a land-mark all over the 
Val d'Arno. It is the Cathedral, and the dome is, I 
think, second only to St Peter's, and is the father of that. 
The edifice is so vast, that it seems like a mountain, 
carved in the shape of a church. 

The architecture generally, in Florence, has more 
strength than elegance, and the streets are neither wide 
nor straight. In returning from this early ramble, we 
beheld, at an open market house, the best statue of a hog 
that was ever chiselled. It is the image, in bronze, of a 
lean porker, somewhat advanced in years, rearing itself 
on the fore legs, with an expression of wonder and re- 
sentment. It is marvellous, that such a brute should 
have found so admirable a sculptor. There was Mengs 
the Raphael of the cats, but this sculptor was the Mi- 
chael Angelo of the swine. The original figure, of 
which this is a copy, we afterwards saw in the Gallery, 
but among so many other wonders, that we hardly, gave 
it a glance. 

After breakfast, we went to our banker's, took fifty 
dollars for expenses at Florence, and on the road to 
Rome, and put the rest in a draft on Schultais, or Tor- 
Ionia. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 159 

We passed but ten days with the Grand Duke, but 
these were very pleasant, and I could write a volume 
of reminiscences. 

Travellers need much a book of directions, routes, 
distances, prices, public houses, and places. There are 
many such books, but none upon the right plan. Madam 
Starke's is the most generally used; but it is rather in- 
tended for families than single gentlemen. A good book 
of the kind, in English, would sell like biscuit in a be- 
seiged city, for a dollar a piece, and I know a man who 
is ready to compile it for a thousand dollars, for authors 
now-a-days must be moderate in their demands. 

There are a great many books of travels in Italy. 
The best, perhaps, is Corinna; but the Diary of an En- 
nuyee, and the books of Forsyth, Lyman, Carter, and 
Lady Morgan, are good. Miladi's Sketches are lively, 
and often correct, though sometimes caricatured, from 
her solicitude to say smart things, in an antithetical way. 
Her reluctance to write what others have written, and 
perhaps, an ignorance of the classics, led her to deride 
the enthusiasm of scholars in Italy. 

We passed the first day in walking about at random, 
looking on the outside of things in general. We went 
to the garden Boboli, on the declivity of a hill, rather a 
trim place, but not in the best taste of gardening. We 
went to the gate San Gallo, a good monument, and we 
walked through the Caseino, a sort of park, several miles 
along the Arno. It abounds in old trees, gravelled walks, 
and secluded spots, which, however, are seldom solitary, 
for in a pleasant evening, all Florence, ' talking age and 
whispering lovers,' are in the Caseino. 

We saw on the heads of some of the military, the old 
brass helmet, glancing in the sun, with great effect. It 
was shaped like that on the head of Achilles, at the Vati- 
can. We had also the pleasure of hearing a large band 



160 LETTERS FROM A 

of musicians, with only instruments like horns and trum- 
pets, though these were much varied. 

No man who values his reputation for liberal curiosity, 
would visit London and not see the lions, or leave Flo- 
rence without giving some attention to the Gallery. I 
hope you suspect us of no such crime, for on the second 
day we went up the wide marble steps, to the grand re- 
pository of ancient and modern art. 

Now, as many parts of my journal were committed to 
loose leaves, and as I have lost the leaf relating to the 
Gallery, what I describe will be from memory, but I do 
not expect that you will have half the pleasure in read- 
ing that I feel in recollecting. 

At the top of the marble steps is a vestibule, where we 
paused to look at a most spirited antique horse, the ori- 
ginal of the bronze hog described before, and some 
busts of the Medici family. 

At the door of the Gallery is a soldier, in half uniform, 
who gives to visiters the salute military, as he ushers 
them in. He is not permitted to receive any gratuity, 
for it is intended that the Gallery shall be free to all. 
The first view is imposing; you look down an avenue as 
long as Winter Street, upon a line of Roman Emperors, 
arrayed like the kings in Banquo's posterity. Parallel 
to this avenue is another, connected with it by a corridor. 

The series of the Emperors is nearly complete, though 
I do not recollect them in detail. Some had been de- 
prived of the most prominent feature, the nose, which, 
however, was always restored from the outline left in pro- 
file on medals and coins. On the outer side of the halls 
are separate apartments, containing the more precious 
monuments of the arts — and we had proceeded but a few 
steps, before, turning in at an half open door, we saw at 
a glance that we stood before ' the statue that enchants 
the world.' The Venus is surrounded by other statues 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 161 

of surpassing excellence, and the walls of the Tribune 
are hung with paintings, the perfection of art and beauty; 
but from the best of them, the visiter turns to take ano- 
ther and another look at the immortal statue of a modest 
and lovely woman. 

' You cannot love marble, but joy and delight 

Will run through your veins and your heart at the sight, 

And no lady that lives — not the loveliest one, 

In your fancy, will rival that lady in stone. 

It will cause you to muse upon beauty in smiles — 
It will give you a glimpse of the fabulous isles, 
Where only delicious emotions are felt, 
Where Love will presume, and where Beauty will melt.' 

Do not put the, saddle upon the xorong ass, and attribute 
these lines to me. ( 

Is it strange that the Florentines should be a beauti- 
ful race? The first objects that meet their infant eyes 
are forms of matchless beauty and grace. I little doubt, 
that if the Grand Duke should substitute for his present 
marbles, an hundred faithful statues of the Venus, 
Apollo, and Graces, of the Hottentots, that his succes- 
sors would have a very plain race of subjects. 

In turning away from the Venus de Medicis, I fell 
over a couple of Wrestlers, striving after the occidental 
method of a Kentuckian rough and tumble. It is an 
admirable group, and should have attracted my attention 
otherwise than by my falling over it. Near it is a 
statue of a man stooping to whet a knife, which, if it 
were modern, might be called Shylock. There is 
also a little statue of Apollo, excellent. 

I should convey no idea of the paintings of Raphael, 
Titian, and Carlo Dolce, by writing of them, nor would 
it be possible to describe the statues and other objects in 
the Gallery, where, while we lay at Florence, we passed 
at least three hours daily 

14* 



162 LETTERS FROM A 

The Pitti palace has a great many wonders. The 
first, in our estimation, was the Venus by Canova, who 
has brought from marble the most beautiful forms, since 
the best age of sculpture. It is strange that, with such 
models before him, he did not throw by his chisel in 
despair. A sight of the Venus de Medicis, the Apollo Bel- 
videre, or the Dying Gladiator, is enough to discourage 
Citation. I am convinced that I am wrong, for I differ 
from artists and connoiseurs, but I rank the Venus of 
Canova second only to one statue of antiquity. He 
succeeded better in forms of beauty, than of any other 
kind. His boxers, which I saw at Rome, seem to have 
more muscular exertion than is consistent with their 
attitude, for they are not striving in actual contact with 
each other, like the wrestlers. 

Near the Pitti Palace is the Museum of Natural 
History, abounding with excellent specimens. There 
are plants finely Executed in wax, and a vast and won- 
derful collection of anatomical figures of trie same ma- 
terial. First comes the figure of a man and woman, and 
these are next so diversified in separate specimens, as 
to show in detail the most minute vessels in the system. 
Some Neapolitan of a most gloomy genius, who had a 
taste for horrors and a talent for wax, has left a repre- 
sentation of the plague in all its stages, even those of 
putrefaction, that is enough to make one shudder and 
forswear reading the tales of Boccacio. 

There are many theatres, probably twenty of them. 
Connected with some of them are suites of rooms for 
billiards, dancing and refreshments. Billiards are play- 
ed in the greatest perfection, and we did not wait long 
to see some astonishing hits. 

At the gate towards Leghorn there is kept a strict 
watch for smugglers. Panniers of the market people 
are narrowly searched, and in a spirit not at all accom- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 163 

modating. The country people are not very richly 
clothed, for the farmers are not much encumbered 
with wealth, but their life seems to be comfortable ; and 
though they do not own the soil, a farm is held for many 
generations by the same family. 

We found the Tuscans a kind and cheerful race, 
not of a very strong texture of character, but willing to 
do a friendly act when it did not cause much trouble 
nor lead into danger. They are not the people from 
whom a man would choose a second for a perilous en- 
terprise, and I doubt if they love with half as much 
ardor as they hate, if this can be said of any men ; 
but the arts that embellish life, and the disposition 
to enjoy it, are successfully cultivated at Florence. 

Even in these days, there is much of that spirit that 
once broke out in bloodshed, and its ramifications are 
very minute. Hence hereditary antipathy not only in 
states, but in towns, streets, and families. The very 
houses in Tuscany are built as if to sustain riots and 
sieges. There is in Italy a common language; almost 
a common character, but a thousand local divisions. 
With any moderately strong bond of union or communi- 
ty of feeling, between the north and middle and south 
of Italy, the whole peninsula might have a higher des- 
tiny than to be a crushed province of Austria. 

Rome is distant from Florence about 200 miles, and 
the mail goes in thirty hours. A traveller may take 
passage with the courier at an expense of about thirty 
dollars. We preferred for comfort, economy, and the 
gratification of curiosity, to go with a vetturino, who 
travels thirtyfive miles a day, and furnishes his passen- 
gers with a supper and single bedroom at night, for nine 
dollars. He takes four within and two on the outside, 
in front. This is the best method for one not rich, or 
in haste, and we were neither. 






164 LETTERS FROM A 

At ten o'clock on a fine morning in January, we put 
ourselves in charge of the coachman for Rome, in com- 
pany with a Russian family, that went in another car- 
riage. For twenty miles, we went off at a good rate; 
when the route became so mountainous that we could 
walk in advance of the coach. At noon, the horses 
rested for three hours, when we strolled on before, and 
arrived at the inn for the night before the baggage. 
Sometimes we loitered behind, with the Russians, who 
were wrapped in furs. There were four or five servants 
that followed on foot, who, when I walked with them, 
would pat me on the back from pure good will, for there 
was no language which we could mutually understand. 
They were a very friendly and good humoured people. 
The master was a most respectful man when he under- 
stood that we were Americans, — why I know not, but 
he took off his cap to us in the Appenines, where it was 
cold enough to freeze his ears. At night we rested at 
some large "town, of which I have forgotten the 
name, and at the hotel we held a carouse with the 
Russian who drank Tuscan wine, as if there were no 
grapes on the Dvina. In carving a tough old rooster, 
he expressed doubts if it had, like the Emperor Paul, 
come unfairly to its end. 

In the first day or two, and till we had passed Sienna, 
the country was not particularly interesting. Sienna is 
like other large towns in Tuscany, on a hill, to secure 
the citizens from the greater degree of malaria preva- 
lent in low places. 

While Signore Marcantonio, the coachman, made his 
noontide rest of three hours, we strolled about the city. 
The Cathedral is Gothic, and, within, richly ornament- 
ed. Some of the pavement is inlaid with lines of black 
marble on white ground, representing with good effect, 
Scripture histories. It has a mutilated group of the 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 165 

Three Graces, and a few illuminated books. In the 
midst of the city is a square, sloping downwards, like 
the side of an amphitheatre. There is in the square a 
fountain of tolerably clear water. In the streets were 
suspended the advertisements for two theatres, so that 
Sienna may not, after all, be* a place so dull as at first 
it seems. 



NO. VIII. 



Sir — Travellers have in appearance, more egotism 
than others, but in reality, less. The appearance arises 
from the convenient manner of describing in the first 
person; which makes every man the hero of his own 
tale, and, therefore only, am I the Hercules of mine; 
but this has been a great check in writing my personal 
adventures, some of which were passing strange. 

Having left Sienna, the next place of much interest 
that I remember is Radifocani on the peak of a moun- 
tain wild enough for mysteries of Udolpho or any other 
my steries. The ascent is five miles, which we made 
on foot. There is a fortress nearly dismantled, for this 
is the Tuscan frontier, and there i& a small village with* 
a good hotel, in which we passed the night. 

On the next day we came to the northern borders of the 
Roman state, which has shrunk to the size of an Amer- 
ican county, though it once held all that was worth hold- 
ing in the earth. We were stopped for an hour at the 
guard house, where I escaped without opening my trunk, 
by asking the young officer if he were not at Waterloo, 
though I as little believe that he was at Arbela. The 
Russian, however, had a doubje portion of vinegar 



166 LETTERS FROM A 

squeezed out upon him and he cursed his stars in pro- 
portion. 

The next town of much interest, was Aquaperidente, 
so named from a very pretty cascade. The town is on 
a mountain, and the ascent is among cliffs that offer 
some of the finest views. Here we dined much to the 
Russian's taste, upon a black cat which the cook called 
a rabbit; though it made a tolerable ragout. The town, 
is old, dark and filthy; a blemish on such scenery, like 
a patch upon a lady's face. 

' God made the country, but man made the town.' 

The harpies of the police fleeced us (to use a pasto- 
ral figure and a broken metaphor ? ) in the sum of half a 
crown, because we had no smaller coin to give; for it 
is the custom in these walled towns to leave the pass- 
port at the gates, and it is restored at the inn by a cor- 
poral, who expects a penny, and who, when he felt the 
half crown French, insulted me by thanks to Milor In- 
glese. 

Lorenzo Nuovo is the next town, and it is more cred- 
itable to the architects than Aquapendente. Here we 
refreshed at the Caffe d' Italia; for coffee rooms are to 
be found at the meanest villages in Italy; and in the 
cities they abound more than soda shops in your own 
temperate city. The coffee is taken in small cups, and 
though it is strong enough to be called a tincture, with 
no cream, (or even lime and water as in Boston,) to 
qualify it. Opposite, or near to the Caffe, in a village, 
is a house with a bush over the door, indicating that wine 
is sold within. 

It was the remark of a man who knows more than ev- 
er I shall know, that temperance societies would do well 
to. establish coffee rooms in cities, for, said he, a man 
Avith notes to pay in the dog days requires something 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 167 

better than water to restore the radical moisture and 
compose the troubled nerves. Perhaps he will bolt a 
dram of liquid fire, for brandy is at hand, or he may be 
poisoned in what is given him for wine, , a vile mixture 
of cider, brandy, honey and logwood; or he may hug 
himself on his abstemiousness in taking off a glass of 
beer; till a tremendous colic gives the poor sufferer to 
know that it has been too long in a leaden pipe. 

Now, (said the wise man whose words I quote) if a 
cup of right Mocha may be had at the same price and 
distance with the alcohol and malt, what a saving would 
be made to the purse, the mind, the character and the 
nervous system. 

From the town with the coffee room, we descended 
a long hill, with caverns by the way side, towards a lake 
with a town upon the bank. This is Bolsenna. The views 
about the lake are beautiful in the extreme, but the poet 
that in summer should stroll upon the shores would hard- 
ly live to tell his emotions in verse. I advise no man to 
look much upon water prospects in Italy, though they are 
extremely attractive, for what is most beautiful is some- 
times the least safe, and the fiend Malaria may make it 
a fatal curiosity, for though he sometimes has the breath 
of flowers he has always the tooth ofa'viper, 

The next town that lives in our memory is Orvieto, 
which has such excellent wines that none but honest 
men should taste fhern, and I dream of them yet. In 
the vicinity are many scattered columns' of basalt. 

At Montefiascone, which is a town upon a command- 
ing hill, is even better wine than that of Orvieto; for 
vineyards adjoining may produce wines of very different 
flavors. We took in our carriage six flasks of each wine, 
and having drank one a-piece, decided in favor of the 
Montefiascone; and we read in the road-book of a Ger- 



168 LETTERS FROM A 

man churchman who died a martyr to the same pref- 
erence. 

Having crossed a barren plain, abounding in small 
birds, we came to a walled town at the foot of a moun- 
tain. This is Viterbo, and for Italy it is rather a neat 
and cheerful town, or such was its holiday aspect. There 
were neat stores, fountains and squares. But the peo- 
ple are all beggars, and the whole ragged regiment 
was drawn out, to receive us with the customary hon- 
ors. First came a fat friar, ' all shaven and shorn, ' with 
a tin machine, like a missionary box. I put in a button 
and received a benediction of the same value. At the 
inn a servant dressed in silks, with golden rings in her 
ears, begged behind our chair; and in the public square 
a young man of good aspect was kneeling and holding 
out his hat and said in English as we passed, ' charity 
gentlemen, for heaven's sake.' We gave, and after- 
wards saw at Naples many similar supplicants, and some 
in masks that shame might hide its blushes while neces- 
sity solicited charity from strangers. 

At these inns upon our route the third course at din- 
ner is generally^! roasted birds, of the size of a fat wren, 
three of which would make a bite for major Stevens. 
They are spitted by dozens upon a wire like a knitting 
needle. I have known a keen sportsman at Naples kill 
six brace in a morning, and seen him steal upon them 
with as much caution as I have used with ducks. But 
I blush to say that I have killed robins myself. 

Having passed Viterbo, we entered on a dreary route 
where frequent crosses, somewhat like our guide boards 
give the traveller the pleasure of knowing that many of 
his number have been murdered, and the interest was 
heightened in our case, when Marcantonio, the coach- 
man, pointed out the dangerous denies, and sung his fa- 
vourite ballad in praise of brigands, for in Italy a robber 
is not without honor. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 169 

Once I slipped away my purse into a rent in the cush- 
ion, as a wild looking fellow, dressed in a black sheep- 
skin with the wool, put his black paw into the carriage, 
for I knew not but that he was the vanguard of a great- 
er force, yet he was but a harmless shepherd, asking for 
tobacco, and we gave him snuff. 

Descending the last hill we came to a broad and well 
paved road. In the distance over a wide waste of plain, 
we beheld many spires and a dome rising above them 
like a mountain; this was Rome. As we approached, 
we passed broken pillars, mounds of brick, and masses 
of marble, scattered over the plain. Then we came to 
a stream of muddy waters, a bow shot over; this was 
the Tiber. We crossed it on a bridge (the Ponte Mol- 
le) and under the arch of a gate entered the noble square 
del' Popolo; for in these countries the magistracy are 
willing to gratify the people in names. 

In the middle is an obelisk, and at the two corners a 
couple of twin like churches. The central street is the 
Corso; we took the left, which led to what our coach- 
man called in his English, Spain's Place or the Piazza 
di Spagna. Here at the house of Clement Ciuli, near 
to a fountain and opposite a noble flight of marble steps, 
we lodged for the night, and slept like a felon before 
execution, somewhat disturbed by the thought of what 
we should behold in the morning. 

To what shall I liken Rome? It is like a man that 
has survived his honesty, living upon his reputation. It 
is like a lady past the prime of life, and making up in 
finery what she has lost in youth and bloom. It is like 
an old dog that has served a great many masters, and 
been beaten and starved by all; or it is like a lemon that 
has been squeezed by various hands, and asthe juice is 
exhausted, they who hold it last, apply the greatest 
pressure. 

15 



170 LETTERS FROM A 

•0 

Rome is a wilderness of houses, rising in the midst of 
a desert plain. To the north, east, and a little in the 
south, are at a distance of a dozen miles or more, the 
Appenines, but towards the west, the plain stretches to 
the sea. It was founded, I take the liberty to tell you, 
by Romulus, who had that gentle foster-mother, and 
gave the city his name. It was the centre, the focus, 
of the world. Roads branched out from this central 
point, like the warp of a spider's web, towards the cir- 
cumference. I presume that you are so well informed 
of the changes, for the last two thousand years, that you 
would not look in Rome for the gentem togatam (not 
lawyers,) that is, a race of men wearing hooked noses 
and gowns. You may see them in busts and statues, 
but they walk no more on earth. No men are left in 
Italy, resembling even the ancient Romans. Cassius 
was the last of them, but as there came out ' more last 
words of Mr Baxter, ' so the title that pertained to Cas- 
sius, has been divided with Rienzi, who owed some of 
his fame to chance, and more of it to Gibbon. The men 
who most resemble Regulus and Cato, and Cincinnatus, 
are in a country that was unknown to the civilized world, 
when Rome was mistress of it. 

The very hills, whereon the. mighty Rome reposed, 
have been changed by time; years have done, in this 
respect, what Gothic taste has done in Boston, where, 
when boys, we used to slide down Beacon hill. The 
Tiber I suppose to be the least changed of all natural 
things at Rome. In size and situation it remains as it 
was, and it still rolls its current of yellow sand. The 
sky is the same too, ' trailing clouds of glory,' like a 
good man's prospects of the future. 

On the morning after our arrival, we called upon 
Torlonia, our banker, who is also a Duke, for titles of 
this kind are to be bought at Rome, and at a fair rate. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 171 



I think that an ass may be made a duke for twenty thou- 
sand dollars, and less ridiculous in proportion. On this 
walk to the banker's, we turned from our lodgings into 
the Via Frattina, a street occupied by foreigners; 
and this brought us to the grand Corso, the great street 
of the city There are here some splendid palaces, and 
a few rich shops. In the middle of the day the street is 
filled with carriages, for it is vulgar for a lady and gen- 
tleman to walk in Rome, and the populace are too in- 
significant to deserve side walks, but must dodge about 
among the little horses at full speed. I myself was pros- 
trated by an equestrian, but before I was up, the cava- 
lier was off. I was mightily shocked, and if I had 
heeded omens should have kept in that day. But Css- 
sar would goto the Senate house. I had a dream the 
night before, that I was groping in the Tiber for a stat- 
ue, and grasped a gymnotus that gave me such a shock, 
that I leaped from the bed, and a dragoon fulfilled the 

augury. 

We walked down the Gorso till we came to a sort ot 
spiral column, surmounted by Saint Peter with his keys 
in the form of a cross; whence, I suppose, our tavern 
signs of the cross keys, so common in the middle States. 
This was the column of Antonine; and, as it was the first 
we had seen, we paused awhile to admire it. Then we 
went down, without a guide, to the end of the same wide 
street where, in a space at the left, we_ found another 
column of a more graceful form and far better sculpture. 
In front, (if to a circle there he any front) there were 
rows of broken i /liars, part of the Forum of Trajan; a 
prince, whose name the column bears, whose ashes it 
once held, and whose virtues made it flattery to say of 
the best of his successors, ' melior Trajano? 

Then we kept on in the same direction, till we came 
to a circular wall, large enough to enclose a city. It 
was the Coliseum, now consecrated as a Catholic 



172 



LETTERS FROM A 



church, by a shrewd rite that has preserved it from 
pillage. Time had lightly touched it, the earthquake 
could not shake it, fire harmed it not, and war passed it 
by and spared it, for the sake of < the great of old;' but 
three hundred years ago, the Roman nobles assailed it, 
making a quarry of its walls, to build their palaces. But 
for these bold bad men, the traveller would not feel, in 
the area of the Coliseum, that he stands amid ruins. 
But it is a magnificent ruin; and, as it was predicted 
that some crumbling abbey would fall upon the posterity 
of Knox, it may as safely be believed, that the Coli- 
seum will crush the descendants of the Barberini. Byron 
has well described this mighty mass in Childe Harold, 
and in the admirable lines near the close of Manfred. 

The space in front of the Coliseum constitutes the 
Forum Romanum, where every broken pillar has a voice, 
and every crumbling arch utters a parable. The whole 
space is now called the Cow Pasture, « a heavy declen- 
sion!' and we saw cowherds, little fit .to alternate in 
eclogues, in a spot which some hold to be the most hon- 
ored on the earth. 

From this we passed out at a gate, for a,stroll in the 
country. An inscription on the left, ' Sepolcro di Sci- 
pione,' led us into the tomb of the grandfather of Afri- 
canus. Then we came to the little church of St Sebas- 
tian, where there is an entrance to the catacombs. We 
pursued these cavernous passages but a little distance. 
At the entrance is a good figure, by Bernini, of the 
saint, transfixed with an arrow; the monks shew it 
with satisfaction. 

l^ext, we looked into the immense ruins of the palace 
of Caracalla, where the earth has been much turned 
over for statues, and where some of the best have been 
found. We brought away a small portion of Mosaic, 
with the figure of an animal. Beyond this, we visited 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 173 

an eternal monument to Cecilia Metella; it rises with 
a graceful effect on a little hill, and the interest, per- 
haps, is increased by the solitude. On the return, we 
went into a cool grotto, in the side of a hill, where a 
little stream trickles into a marble basin; this was the 
grot of the pretty nymph Egeria. 

This was the excursion of our first day. We were in 
search of antiquities, and scorned to look at anything 
as young as ; fifteen centuries; considering a temple of a 
thousand years but an infant. We learnt, in this route, 
a little how the old Romans lived; and afterwards, in 
their statues, how they looked. 

At our rooms we found the American Consul, who is 
intelligent and pleasing, and who speaks better English 
than I do . In the afternoon we hired a valet de place, 
to act as a guide to the sights, and lead us to them the 
shortest way; for, in the morning, we walked twelve 
miles to what might have been seen in six. In the eve- 
ning, he took us to the theatre, which happened to be 
well attended, and we saw many very beautiful Roman 
ladies. 



NO, IX. 

Sir — In a late paper, you ask for a ( place in the 
country, where a boy is wanted to turn up the sod;' and 
as I hope your actions will not contradict your princi- 
ples, I look to receive one of the youngsters by return 
of wagon. I have a small freehold, where, if ' neither 
money is turned up with every furrow, nor health spar- 
kles on every blade of grass,' yet a boy can find em 
ployment in picking up stones and whacking bushes. 
15* 



y 



174 LETTERS FROM A 

It is very easy to praise a farmer's life, but it is all from 
affectation, as the poets used to praise Arcadia. Cin- 
cinnatus has a name in history for little else than because 
he could endure to cultivate turnips; and the very praise 
that has been lavished on him, shews that it required 
self-denial to retire to his Oym. 

I myself have pounded the earth at Potatoville, and if 
I had fifty sons, I would send them all to cities. They 
should live among men, and not browse with cattle; 
they should thrive by their wits, and not depend upon 
their hands. Whatever leads a man to adapt intel- 
lectual means to ends, raises him in the scale of intel- 
lect; while the more he labors, the less he will reflect; 
' Those who think must govern those w^ho toil.' • 

Nay, never shake your gory pitchforks at me, ye huge 
Titans, because I esteem matter less than mind. But 
send that pretty boy, sir, that we may make a lout of him 
at once, to which end he shall have all the advantage of 
my own example. 

What made the Romans great? their breed of cattle, 
or their race of men? planting corn, or rearing temples 
and advancing in the arts ? 

Excuse me for giving the auger a few more twists 
upon Rome, while I open my book of engravings at the 
Coliseum. Wc returned to it by moonlight, which much 
increases the interest. 

' For the gay beams of gladsome day 
GiW; but to flout, the ruins gray.' 

As there used to be now and then a murder here, (for 
it is a charming place for an assassin to stab and vanish 
in,) the ruins arc guarded by a couple of brave soldiers. 
I had fresh in memory the incantations made by mad 
Benvcnuto, that filled this vast amphitheatre with devils, 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 175 

four of which were of the height of giants, e proudly pre- 
eminent.' 

To tell the truth, at the risk of ridicule, (which is 
harder than it seems to be,) I saw a shadow that I could 
not account for, cast beside my own. 

' The place 
Became religious, and (lie heart ran o'er 
With silent worship of the great of old, 
The dead but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule 
Our spirits from their urns.' 

In recalling the mass of what we saw at Rome, the 
very profusion is a barrier to description; for where 
should we begin, or rather, where should we end, with 
so many temples, arches, churches, columns, obelisks, 
aqueducts, fountains, bridges, statues, and paintings. 

It would be better not to have seen Rome, (like Na- 
poleon,) than pretend to describe what was seen of it in 
eighteen days. I think that the mighty Emperor was 
never at the ancient capital it was his wish to emulate 
in Paris; and this is passing strange; for no man de- 
lighted more in the charlatanry of power, and he would 
have played a very classic pageant among the ruins. 
Madame de Stael thinks she foresaw his imperial de- 
signs in the consulate, when he affected to stand upon 
one foot, behind a lady's chair, after the manner of the 
Bourbon princes. At Rome he would have displayed, 
with good effect, his likeness to Augustus, whose bust 
he much resembled. 

We could not decide, to Our own satisfaction, what 
was the most interesting object at Rome — sometimes we 
thought it St Peter's, and at others the Pantheon, the 
Coliseum, and the Pillar of Trajan. But there are a 
hundred things worth a voyage over the Atlantic to see, 
to say nothing of the overpowering interest of the whole; 
for at or near sunset, if a man will put himself on the 



176 LETTERS FROM A 

summit of St Peter's Church, he will see a prospect of 
city, plain, and mountains, that he will remember as long 
as he shall live. There is a noble engraved view of the 
city, of the price of four dollars, but I did not bring one 
for you as a present. Then there are books of engrav- 
ings of the objects in detail, of all sizes, and every price; 
and these, to be frank, made all the journal that I kept 
at Rome. 

It would be a shame to say nothing of St Peter's, 
and a failure to try to describe it. Of all i solemn tem- 
ples,' it is the most impressive; but not at first. The 
Coliseum and the Pantheon strike at once, for within 
or without, the eye can compass the whole. But St 
Peter's is so vast, that at once the mind itself cannot 
comprehend it; but awe and admiration would grow upon 
you at every successive stage of the examination, and I 
believe would never subside. 

The Pantheon is a wonder, but in the dome of St Pe- 
ter's is the Pantheon, raised three hundred feet in the 
air. Though the front of St Peter's is of a broken de- 
sign, you have an admirable perspective of the whole: 
first you enter a round court of several acres, surround- 
ed by a stupendous colonnade of three hundred pillars, 
surmounted by statues of martyrs. In the middle of the 
area is an obelisk, with hieroglyphics; it is of one 
shall, eighty feet, and with the base, one hundred and 
twentyfour, and on each side are fountains, that play 
continually. 

You pass the vestibule of the church, and enter the 
most splendid hall that was ever constructed by man; 
and when your admiration of its extent begins to sub- 
side, you will find enough to admire in the exquisite 
finish of the whole. The pillars are encrusted with pre- 
cious stones, and beautiful pictures in mosaic. But 
enough of it, except that we made up to the bronz e st atue 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 



177 



of St Peter, the toe of which is kissed by all; it is half 
kissed away. . 

The world is full of changes, and this was once a statue 
of Jupiter; but this is nothing, a thousand rites of the 
Catholic church are but classic observances, for one 
superstition rose out of the ruins of the other, and St 
Peter is strangely represented by the image of one 
whose dominion he assisted to destroy. 

The Vatican, that adjoins, is like a large town: mainly 
it is twelve .hundred feet long, and one thousand broad, 
but there are many branches. It has twentytwo courts, 
and many thousand apartments. The library is in shape 
like a T, nearly half a mile long, but in walking through 
you see no books, for they are all shut up in elegant 

cabinets. 

Our remembrance of many of the best paintings and 
statues is fresh, and I would say something of them, but 
that they cannot be described. A description of a pic- 
ture, or statue, may recall the images to one who has 
seen them, but can convey little to one who has not. 

It is a hard struggle, when a traveller arrives at Rome, 
to reconcile the pictures that his imagination has formed, 
with what is actually before him; though this I have 
found in lesser degree in all cities. 

Long processions, churches with lights blazing all 
night before the altars, priests in black robes, and car- 
dinals in red, engravings of the Pope, and images of St 
Peter, filth, poverty, beauty, and magnificence, are some 
of the marks that distinguish modern Rome. 

But once out of the Corso, you cannot look up with- 
out seeing mutilated remnants of its ancient splendor, 
broken statues, prostrated pillars, crumbling arches, 
walls, and inscriptions. What we have written has no 
pretence to be even an outline; there is little encour- 
agement to write recollections of Rome; there are too 



178 LETTERS FROM A. 

many books descriptive of it, to leave anything new to 
be said, and some of them too well written to make it 
easy to say an old thing half as well. 

The country around the city is as barren as neglect 
and drought can make it; but time and labor might re- 
store its fertility, though everything in the Roman state 
is ruinous, and a broken arch is an emblem of the state 
itself. 

We Mt nothing of the malaria, for it was in winter; 
but we saw enough of its vestiges, as the asp was traced 
by its slime, in Cleopatra's basket of figs. The marks 
of this pest of the low lands were sallow faces, which 
would have been death-like, but for two wild and lustrous 
eyes, emitting a lambent light, like a will-o'-wisp about 
a charnel house. Streets and towns are depopulated. 
Ostia, a large town, is as desolate as Pompeii, and has 
less than a dozen people. It was a schoolboy doubt of 
mine, that birds were killed by the vapour of Avernus; 
but I can believe it here. Bishop Heber describes some 
wild region in India, blooming in summer in all the vege- 
table magnificence of the East, that is then desertedby 
everything that has animal life. It is like a boundless 
forest of upas trees— no bird alights upon its branches, 
no serpent ejects his venom; for there is here one more 
poisonous than himself. Other animals are guided by 
instinct, man by reason; which is the safest conductor? 
The good Bishop (never was there a better man) be- 
lieved that animals had some sagacity of impulse, that 
led them to avoid certain destruction in the air of these 
forests. This is the place, sir, -where we should colo- 
nize the blacks; it would give them, at once, the relief 
that is a year or two in coming at Liberia, and here also 
would be a better residence than St Helena, for" de- 
throned emperors. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 



179 



You may wish to know something of the personal ap- 
pearance of the Romans. They are slender, stooping a 
little forward, and not standing bolt upright like an 
Englishman. Their countenances are very animated, 
and one expression chases another over them, as in a 
child; but they are children, and I have seen a coachman 
weep, when his wheel was fast in the mud, and laugh 
with extravagant joy when his passengers had lifted it 
out. In their language, they have preserved more traces 
of their ancestors, than in their features or minds. 

The sons of the church are dressed in black, though 
in processions there are many white robes. The clergy, 
including monks, are without number; you meet them 
at every turn, as in Boston you fall upon a black coat in 
election week, where there are so many societies, with 
each a sermon and a contribution. 

The Jews are about twenty thousand, and have all the 
indulgence that can be expected, from. the clemency of 
the mildest Pope, to such a stubborn generation. They 
are shut up at night, like cattle, in their own pen, which 
is a very filthy part of the city;- and the dispersed race 
are nowhere in Europe distinguished for neatness; 
though, as far as I can estimate the degrees of filthiness, 
in Poland they are the highest. 

The countenance of a Jew betrays his lineage; it is 
not easy to describe wherein he differs so much from 
other men, yet the difference is such as is never to be mis- 
taken. Their countenances are somewhat between those 
of the goat and the fox. 

They look forward to the rebuilding of the temple, 
and are shy of the monument of the prince vVho destroy- 
ed it; therefore they will take a circuit, rather than pass 
the arch of Titus. 

The horses at Rome are small, but very spirited, and 
swift in the race, which is run without riders; the car- 



180 LETTERS FROM A 

riages are those old lumbering machines, that you may 
remember thirty years ago, if you can look back so far. 
No Roman gentleman, who values his character, will be 
seen walking; riding is the great barrier that separates 
him from the vulgar, and though the vulgar are, as else- 
where, the largest class, they are of too little account to 
have side-walks. A Roman lady walks as little as a 
Chinese, but dances infinitely better. 

The countrymen that come to market are vagabonds, 
dressed in tatters, which are the more shabby, because 
the remnant of finery. The artists are better paid than 
other classes, except priests. They are supported prin- 
cipally by travellers, and some of them make very pretty 
imitations of antique gems, and models of temples, &c, 
from fragments of the same, and I have a little image of 
the Coliseum, from a piece that I broke, like a barba- 
rian, from a cornice. 

At some seasons, there are a thousand or more Eng- 
lish, who are also dispersed all over Italy, where they 
come, from restlessness, or for health, study, curiosity, 
pleasure, or economy. An American from the United 
States has so much resemblance to the stock from whence 
he sprung, that he is taken for an Englishman, though 
you and I know Mr Bull at a glance. From us he can- 
not hide his horns, though he may not gore with them. 
His lordly stride, and the curl of his lip, when he sees 
abroad a better country and institutions than he left at 
home, are not to be repressed. 

There are French, also, the friends and adherents of 
Napoleon; and Spaniards, who came on devout pilgrim- 
ages. Germans you will find all over Italy; for what 
is the whole of it, but a province of Austria; and Russians 
make it a constant residence, having once seen a coun- 
try so different from the frozen North. It is easy to 
understand the haste of the Northern hive to quit their 
forests for sunny vineyards and plains. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 181 

Turks there are none, though, in the maritime cities, 
no sight is more common than the turban, yet here it 
would probably be stoned; Mahomet would not be per- 
mitted so near the shrine of St Peter. 

Having borrowed half a day from Election, to tell you 
these things, I will say no more of Rome. We left the 
temples, statues, and paintings, with regret; but they 
are all so stamped upon our memory, that, were we art- 
ists, we could draw them. 

We took passage for Naples with a new coachman, a 
choleric fellow, in company with seven dignitaries of the 
church. We were delayed at the gate an hour, to ex- 
hibit passports, and answer idle questions about our 
ages and business. When permitted to go, we entered 
at once upon the barren plains, that for twenty miles 
surround the city. We passed a few flocks of sheep 
and goats, under the inspection of Corydon and Alexis, 
whose appearance did not say much for a shepherd's 
life. We passed nameless ruins of columns, arches, and 
shapeless mounds, overgrown with weeds. On both 
sides, in the fields, were long lines of broken arches, 
which once were aqueducts, rolling rivers from the 
mountains to the city; they were carried twenty miles, 
and a single arch is a monument, like the column on 
Bunker's Hill. After riding a dozen or more miles, we 
began to ascend the long hill, on the top of which is Al- 
bano. On the left, were Frescati, Tivoli, and (I think) 
Citta.' Castellana, all making a beautiful show among 
the mountains. On ascending the hill, we passed seve- 
ral columns, overgrown and covered with ivy; and as I 
walked up, I paused to admire one of the best voices 
ever heard. It came from a wild looking fellow, who 
was singing in the top of an olive tree, which he was 
trimming. 



16 



182 LETTERS FROM A 



NO. X. 



Sir — In travelling southward from Rome, every mile 
leads to a better country, for there can be none worse 
than that of the Campagna. At Albano, we found 
olives, grapes, a variety of fruits, and grain; the town 
is on a hill, and is in summer the residence of a great 
many strangers and others, who fly from malaria; and there 
is a daily coach to Rome. In the middle of the town 
is an antique edifice with three towers, placed by anti- 
quaries to the credit of an early event in the Roman 
annals. The lake of Albano is attractive, but we had 
no time to see it; we however strolled in advance of 
the caravan around some beautiful slopes and fountains, 
till we came to Aricia, also wisely built upoa a hill 

• Pinguts Obi et placabilis ara Dianse.' 
The scenery in this vicinity is as beautiful as can be 
made by the combination of towns, towers, lakes, cliffs, | 
woods, plains, and a distant ocean, called in Virgil, the 
Tuscan sea. 

We had scarcely left the gates of Aricia before 
our coachman gave a specimen of his temper; one 
of his fraternity who had left him but half the road to 
pass in, he chased round the coaches and threatened 
extermination with an iron-bound stick. Clergy and 
laity interfered to preserve life, and when I wrested 
the club from the fellow's hand, I thought I never be- 
held a face filled with so much of the evil principle; 
there was murder in every line of it. 

Our coaches advanced so slowly that we walked over 
a great part of this route to Naples, which was very 
wild in the mountains, and fertile in the plains. We 
saw nothing in Italy like the gently swelling hills that 
are so pretty in an English landscape. It was all moun- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 183 

tain or plain. The plain is covered with olives, vines, 
and grain, which are also found on terraces in the side 
of the mountain, while the upper regions are covered 
with trees, and the bare summits browsed by goats and 
sheep. There are many chestnut trees, and a coarse 
kind of bread is made of the nut, which is at least six 
times as large as the largest of ours. In the cities you 
will find them roasting on furnaces in the streets, and 
may fill your pockets for the smallest coin. 

On the second day, I think, we passed the Pontine 
Mar-hes, over a road that it was a pleasure to walk 
upon. These are the confines of that gloomy monarch 
to whose dominions we 'must come at last.' The 
meadows are dressed in the richest green, and scented 
with a thousand flowers; the trees almost conceal the 
road, expanding their huge arms that have waved for 
ages; but man withers in a day by the very causes that 
give such strength and beauty to vegetable life. At 
that seasen the air was good, and even in summer the 
traveller, if he have good horses, may have a race with 
Death, and escape him (as Tarn O'Shanter avoided his 
pursuers) for a time. 

The wide meadows are filled with numberless flocks 
of wild geese and other aquatic birds; the woodcocks 
are as large as n art ridges, and are much sought for at 
Rome and Naples. 

At the end of the Marshes we came upon Terracina, 
on a lovely sweep of bay under a tall clifF that projects 
almost into the sea. Here we found a good inn and 
passed the night to our liking. Near this we remarked 
some hedges of aloe growing to the height of eight feet. 
In the morning we arose so early as to be at the frontiers 
of the kingdom of Naples before the light of day, and 
there we found a police so strict that our passports were 
copied verbatim, and as mine was so worn as to be al- 



184 LETTERS FROM A 

most illegible, I had to go into a history of my life, 
opinions, and designs, in travelling. 

On this day we came to a mountain pass so complete- 
ly commanded by a fortress that it seemed wonderful 
that ten thousand" Neapolitans should retreat from it 
without a fight, on the approach of an Austrian army. 

Beyond this, are Fondi and Itri, gloomy towns among 
the mountains, inhabited by people whose trade it was 
to plunder, and whose pleasure it was to kill. They 
were the homes of the banditti, that used to adventure 
so largely in the way of rapine and ransom, and the 
robbers relinquished their depredations only with the 
loss of half their number, and on some violent measures 
with their towns, 

I have seen wreckers and pirates in the West Indies, 
and Malays in the East, heads by Salvator Rosa, and 
rogues without number in our own country, but never 
beheld such sinister, blood-thirsty looking wretches as 
at these towns. They are men that you would shrink 
from anywhere, and I did not walk among them without 
keeping an eye over my shoulder, and a hand upon the 
jugular. 

But it is better for his kind that a man should be all 
ruffian; for it is a caution for the dullest to beware, 
when such hearts are stamped upon the face, and gleam 
from the eyes. It is the gorgeous snake that may do 
the greatest mischief; it is the wretch who lives in good 
society among his superiors, as if they were his peers, 
and hides his mental obliquity under the polished shield 
of good manners, that he may add treachery to his other 
vices, and stab a man to the heart, whose arms are ex- 
panding to embrace him as a friend. Such men are 
found in cities, and as fast as you find them out, I re- 
commend that you cut their acquaintance. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 185 

In the vicinity of the last of these towns are the 
richest groves of lemon and orange that we had ever 
seen; the trees were nothing less in magnitude than 
those of our orchards, and were bending with golden 
fruit. 

We next came to Mola di Gaeta, and I dare say 
all travellers have a pleasing remembrance of the hotel. 
It is in sight of the castellated city of Gaeta, the siege 
of which cost the French so much powder, and stands 
upon the ruins of Cicero's villa, with a noble garden of 
oranges between it and the sea. There is an old mon- 
ument near, supposed to mark the spot where Cicero 
was killed; and if you lack the disposition to reverence 
his name, read his life by Middleton, or put it in the 
hands of the youngster whom you refuse to send ' to 
turn upthe sod.' At the hotel was a large register for 
travellers, though such is kept at every inn for the in- 
spection of the police; we found in it the highest 
names in the literature and aristocracy of England. 

The next town that I remember, was Capua, magnifi- 
cent of old, though anything but splendid now. We 
went into a church that had a few pillars of the ancient 
city, and while the clergy smoked their accustomed 
pipe, walked slowly along the road to Naples. 

Capua is of about the size of Salem, and between it 
and Naples, are two other towns as large. This level 
country around Naples is well named the ' Campagna 
Felice; ' it is the most fertile part of the earth, and its 
vicinity to large cities insures the most perfect cultiva- 
tion. I should not describe it, to call it a garden, for 
you never saw a garden cultivated so well; there is 
not only a constant succession of crops, but there are 
many crops at the same time; fruits on the trees, vines 
running in festoons from 'tree to tree, and under them 
esculents and grain. 
16* 



186 LETTERS FROM A 

The rains do not supply moisture enough, and there 
are frequent wells where water is raised with a wheel, 
and carried into a reservoir, whence it is distributed 
over the fields. 

The hills back of Naples hid all view of the city, 
which we did not see till we had fairly entered a wide 
street of it, and then we saw only the street itself — it 
was as wide as our avenue on the neck, and paved with 
flat slabs of stone. On the right our eyes were attrac- 
ted to a magnificent edifice, where the poor are lodged 
like nobles; it was an almshouse, , as large as Central 
wharf. Then came a Botanic Garden, commenced by 
Murat; then the quadrangular palace containing the 
Bourbon Museum, in sculptures scarcely inferior to that 
of the Vatican. 

Next we passed through an open square, the Largo 
del Mercatello, with a building much like our Quincy 
market, except that it is surmounted with a hundred 
statues in marble. The statues are personifications of 
the virtues of some former king, who left them for the 
irony of posterity. There stands his Justice in marble, 
with a sword, his Mercy with a gridiron to broil heretics 
into a better creed, his Faith with a cro3s, and his 
Charity with a purse of stone. He has all the virtues 
though some are at variance with the others. - 

At sunset we alighted at a French hotel in the Largo 
del Castello, an open space near the quay and the opera 
San Carlo, and in sight of Vesuvius. Twenty ragged 
fellows made a plunge at our baggage; I rescued mine 
and carried it myself to a chamber, and on similar oc- 
casions I advise all travellers to become their own por- 
ters. 

In the moonlight evening we strolled out and walked 
till a late hour about the city. The main avenue is. the 
Toledo, and it is worthy of so fine a city; it was 



BOSTON MERCHANT, 187 

thronged with people till ten o'clock, as our streets are 
thronged only orv holidays; but at Naples, where 
every one is idle, every day is a holiday, and all trades 
are followed in the open streets. Here the cobler has 
his bench, the tailor his seat, the barber his chair, and the 
money changer his table. Where all are indolent, many 
must beg and steal, and in this our first walk in Naples, 
our charity was tried a hundred times. Near a theatre, 
a man in a mask said that he must beg or starve, and 
we supposed it the lot of many in this great city; we 
gave him a silver coin and he ran off with it like a deer, 
making protestations of eternal remembrance. 

The nocturnal police seemed to be well managed; 
there was a military guard and frequent lights in the 
wider streets, but into the alleys we had been cautioned 
not to enter. 

At Naples, our first pleasure was to taste the Lagry- 
ma wine. A pistareen, produced from Signore Georges 
a couple of the best, and he charged us but double 
price, which was reasonable, as he is a Neapolitan, and 
speaks English. This is an excellent wine, without 
lead, brandy, or logwood; it produces a gentle cleva^- 
tion of the mind, such as we feel in beholding a fine 
picture, listening to music, or the recital of a noble 
action. 

How animated I become when I write of wine, and 
how eloquent you were, lately, on the subject of roast 
beef. But here it is hardly possible to drink good 
wine to excess; it is, like wit, so light and inoffensive. 

Your German is not altogether temperate, for his 
Rhenish wines are potent; but France, Spain, and Italy, 
are temperate countries, and it is as rare to see a native 
drunk, as to behold, at a country muster, a militia man 
sober. 



188 LETTERS FROM A 

We are a nation of drunkards, (I like to speak plain- 
ly) and shall be, till we cultivate the grape; let every 
Temperance Society plant a vineyard, and they will de- 
stroy the monster they make war upon. You have read 
the encouraging letter of the Chief Justice; I should 
like to be tried by him, for he looks at the favorable side; 
yet I fear that much of his information came from pub- 
licans, who do not willingly throw discredit upon their 
own taps. When they have among their honored guests 
a man of respect, * gravem pietate ac meri/ts,' and he 
inquires, 'Landlord, how many tiplers have you? ' — if 
I know Boniface, he will reply, ' none your Honor.' 
Still, the evil is shrinking into narrower limits. Let 
the foul demon be confined to his own jug, and miserable 
be the man who would draw the cork, as the fisherman 
in the Arabian tale released the horrid genius that 
swelled to a monstrous size and threatened fo destroy 
his liberator. But wit and humor, poetry, music, sculp- 
ture, and painting, have conspired to throw flowers over 
the road that leads to intemperance and ruin. 

Thsre are at Naples, wine vaults of a great many 
chambers in the side of the mountain. Wine of a year 
old is the best, and may be had as cheap as cider in 
New England; and it is much better than that 'table ci- 
der ' over which, at my board, you made wry faces. At 
many of these vaults the lower people make little parties 
and drink by the hour, for which the vintner sets his 
price according to the supposed capacity of his custom- 
ers, and practice has rendered him so shrewd that he 
can guage to a pint, by the eye. 

He has a variety of artifices to interrupt their atten- 
tion to the cask; the most common is to make them 
laugh, and a moderate jest suffices when it is fortified 
by good wine. Considerable Cyprus wine is used at 
Naples, and Malaga is a favorite, but there is little.spirit, 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 189 

and though I was ten weeks at Naples, in all public 
places, and living like the Neapolitans, in the streets, I 
saw but one man intoxicated, and he could walk. 

Permit me to lament that things should not be called 
by their right names; we say that a man is corned, is 
illustrious, elevated, boozy, when we should say plainly 
that he is drunk. Vice loses half its deformity when 
you give it a new name, and the rogues and pickpockets 
in London shroud their practices under such queer 
words, called slang, that to steal, to lie, and to murder, 
seems half a jest. 



NO. XL 



Sir — Our first walk was to the postofhce, where, 
around the entrance, (as Cares beset the infernal gates) 
the scribes have placed their chairs and tables ; for it 
often happens that men receive letters who cannot read 
or write. 

The secretaries sit like a priest in the confessional, 
the hired confidants of hopes, fears and reproaches, and 
cast into their own cold formula the warm dictates Nea- 
politan love and affection. Yet the postofhce at 
Naples was the best administered among all that I saw 
in Europe. 

Having visited the postofhce, the traveller is advised 
to turn through the square of the castle, by the Opera 
of San Carlo, which has a front from the Parthenon, to 
the Toledo, the main avenue of the city, which is full of 
people to an overflow. The beggar jostles the prince, 
and the whiskered soldier the shorn friar ; all walk fast 
and with animated faces, as if in pursuit of pleasure or 
gain; yet not one in twenty has anything to do. 



190 LETTERS PROM A 

Turning to the left you will see a troop of horse in 
front of a grand house, as we say at home, or of a pal- 
ace, in the languages of Europe, and it is dignified by 
the residence of the King of the Two Sicilies. It is 
well placed, being directly on the Bay — in sight of the 
whole line o, shore, and Vesuvius, and under the Castle 
of Saint Elmo. 

Having passsd the Palace you turn to the right for a 
stroll along a wide street, parallel with the shore, where 
you see those who sell Frutta di Mare, sea fruit, that is, 
oysters and other shell fish. The oysters are excellent, 
but dear. 

This walk leads to the Villa Reale, one of the finest 
promenades in Italy. It has next the sea a parapet, 
never washed by the sea, for there are po tides in the 
Mediterranean ; yet it is near to the waters which 
have always a swell, and break upon the sandy beach. 
There are fountains, statues, trees, flowers, pavilions, 
and people in the costumes of all nations, (and some 
of them are glorious) walking, sitting and reclining 
among them. 

Beyond this pretty place we came near to a high 
hill, and the road led us to a long and straight cavern 
directly under it. This was the grotto of Pausilippo, 
cut in remote antiquity through the rock, wide enough 
for two carriages abreast, and fifty feet in height. 

At the entrance was a fat monk, who- called himself 
a hermit, sitting in a basket attached to ropes to draw 
himself up to his hermitage one hundred feet above ; 
he solicited charity, and we buttoned our pockets. The 
grotto seems to my recollection to be a quarter of a mile 
in length, and is dimly lighted by two orifices from the 
top and a few glow worm lamps. It is cool and would 
be agreeable, but for the dust which has been ground 
for three thousand years, and is so fine, that it is easily 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 191 

set. in motion. The dust is a great evil in all the roads ; 
there is little rain, and you return from a walk powder- 
ed like a miller. This, with the bright sun, we sup- 
posed to be the reason why so many are blind. We 
also saw a good number of deformed, but the people 
who were not deformed might furnish models for an 
Apollo, and you may see plenty of them with but a blue 
cloth about the middle, or in a pair of trowsers ending 
midway between the hip and the knee. Of course they 
are well bronzed, and when lying still under the arches 
look like statues. 

We emerged from the grotto into a little village, and 
the effect was beautiful, to come at once from such a 
cavern to a plain, of trees and vines, shut in by hills, 
with every leaf and blade of grass glittering in heavy 
dews under such a morning sun as you can never see 
in the latitude of forty-two. 

On our return, a stripling accosted us to request the 
honour of shewing the tomb of- Virgil, who he said was 
a great poet, but a greater magician, for such is his 
local fame. As it was the very place we had come to 
see, we walked up the side of the mountain, and knock- 
ed for five minutes with a brick upon a garden gate, 
which was at last opened, and we passed by the graves 
of several Frenchmen and Englishmen, to the sepulchre 
of Virgil. It is on the side of the mountain, almost 
directly over the grotto, in shape a dome, and in size 
sufficient to hold five or six persons ; there are one or 
two apertures for light, and niches in the wall for urns. 
We went upon the top and broke a branch from a small 
myrtle that is there growing, which I have since pre- 
sented to a Reverend President. If Maro had sought 
over Italy for a more charming spot he could not have 
found it ; and there is the authority of tradition, (which 
in locality is strong) and of tolerably accurate descrip- 



192 LETTERS FROM A 

tion, by old authors, (hat this is indeed the tomb of 
Virgil. 

At the foot of the hill we entered a church, where 
there is a monument to Sannazaro, whose epitaph ex- 
presses the vicinity of his tomb to that of Virgil, and 
the resemblance of their strains. 

The extent of the Bay of Naples, from one cape to 
the other, is, I suppose, twentyfive miles, and there is a 

smooth beach of tlark sand round the whole circuit. 

i 

There is almost always, even in calms, a heavy surf, 
and it is very pleasant in a still day, to walk along tho 
beach and see it break over. Parallel with the beach 
is a street of many miles in extent. 

In the middle of the bay is Capri, an island of a few 
hills, and on the summits are ancient towers. At sun- 
ect, when the waters are smooth and reflect as in a mir- 
ror the gorgeous skies, Capri seems like a cloud of pur- 
ple floating in the air, for the element below seems as 
pure as that above. 

This is the spot where the third Caesar passed his 
cheerful old age in philosophic retirement, and from 
whence he issued those beneficent edicts that constitute 
an enviable part of his fame. The science of govern- 
ment was then in its infancy, and if ex post fado penalties 
were sometimes inflicted, it cannot be denied that the 
Romans had so degenerated as to need wholesome se- 
verity; and who was a fitter person to administer it than 
Tiberius? 

Solitude never made a good man; it may suspend 
the operation of evil passions, but cannot eradicate them. 
Where there is no temptation there is no resistance, 
and can be no virtue — for it is virtue to choose wisely 
between good and evil, when the will inclines to the 
latter. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. (93 

Yet, when a poor and just man sees iniquity riding 
in a coach and bespattering him, perchance, with the 
mud, or when he himself becomes an object of undeserv- 
ed reproach, he may feel a wish to retire from his fel- 
lows beyond the contagion of vice, and train himself in 
a better principle. 

But solitary animals are the most savage. The tiger 
prowls alone; the adder has no venomous mate, and 
the vulture no comrade in rapine • Hermits are mad or 
misanthropic, or both; and for cool systematic cruelty 
that studies tortures with the ardor of a ruling pas- 
sion, there is none like a monk, or a monarch who takes 
one to be his prime minister. Men are not too good, 
(so far I am willing to admit that I sneak fir myself) 
and in solitude they study their own amiable hearts, 
which are the mirrors that reflect or distort (hut never 
flatter) the dispositions of others. To gain knowledge 
of what is obscure, men compare the known with the 
unknown, and as all men have knowledge of their own 
evil passions, they infer the existence of something 
worse in their neighbours. 

Tiberius looked into his own tender heart, and some- 
times saw in it suspicion, cruelty, and treachery; this 
generated a rancor to all mankind, for ho.w could he 
love those who seemed worse than himself. Therefore 
he spoke of his kind in sarcasms, and hi* benefits to 
men were in the ratio of bis praise. He inflicted upon 
them such little inquietudes, as his limited means allow- 
ed, and, (as we hate in the proportion that we injure) it 
became a matter of course, that the Emperor's hatred 
of his species should amount to fury. Do not marvel 
that I am sour, for I have been sucking a lemon. 

Vou will sometimes hear the situation of Boston com- 
pared with that of Naples, but there is only that sort of 
parallel between them that Fluellen found between 
17 



194 LETTERS FROM A 

Monmouth and Macedon. There is no city upon earth 
like Naples; though Lisbon is beautiful from the river, 
and Genoa also from the Gulf; but they are not under 
the Sicilian skies, nor are they surrounded by much of 
the beautiful or the sublime. 

At Naples there is a mountain forever rolling its vol- 
ume of smoke and flame, standing as a magnificent 
natural pharos; and how mean in comparison was even 
the great Colossus at Rhodes, holding a burning tar- 
barrel in his hand, to light the fleets in sailing between 
his legs. 

Naples is built chiefly upon a slight eminence, though 
in the midst of it there is a mountain, surrounded by a 
castle large enough to swallow Bunker's Hill, and pick 
its teeth with the monument. 

' Tn front of the city is that noble Bay, and on other 
sides a plain of such fertility and beauty, flowing with 
milk and honey, corn, wine, and oil, that it is well named 
the ' Fortunate Country.' The city cannot soon be- 
come tedious, even to a restless traveller, there are so 
many objects of natural grandeur, historical and fabu- 
lous interest, and such monuments of a race of men, 
that are now known only by a few magnificent relics. 
There is H'erculaneum and Pompeii, with their gems, 
manuscripts, statues, pictures, tombs, temples, amphi- 
theatres, and streets; there is Misenus, Avernus, Cumae, 
Baia, and Capua, with recollections that a scholar cher- 
ishes as a miser counts his gold. 

Then it is the cheapest country to live in, not except- 
ing even Kentucky, where a dollar buys ten bushels of 
corn. A good house may be rented in the suburbs for 
six dollars a year, and ,corn, wine, etc. are so cheap, 
that it is marvellous to see so many wretches starving. 
At Castel-a-mare, a large town under a mountain on 
the opposite side of the bay, I am convinced a man 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 195 

may live well on fifty dollars a year. But then he must 
carry the money with him, for in cheap countries, though 
many dollars may be saved, a penny is very hard to be 
had. But it is not in human nature to be contented 
with what we have, and at this town we raised the envy 
of an old lady, by telling her that the fowls in America 
laid two eggs in a day, whereas her own afforded but 
one. 

In Naples there are no Jews, and we saw but few 
Turks. The foreign ships are chiefly English and Aus- 
trian. The monks are numerous, especially a huge 
race of ba- ci'ooted friars, that leave a track in the sand 
like an elephant's. Their hair is close shaven as low 
as the ears, they v/ear a brown cloak to the knees, and 
have a complexion that partakes more of the violet than 
the pale rose. 

The churches are less splendid than at Rome, but all 
places of amusement are more elegant here. A stran- 
ger is surprised to see all mechanical trades followed in 
the street. Basket weavers, shoemakers, barbers, and- 
even workers in metals, pay little rent for shops, and 
the climate is so dry that a rain seldom comes to inter- 
rupt their industry. But if in the streets there are so 
many at work there are countless throngs of the idle; 
and all the avenues are filled with people, as our streets 
are on some great holiday. 

All kinds of juggling feats are practised at the cor- 
ners, and Punch and the puppets have the same open 
theatre; yet before the hocus pocus man begins, he 
sends round his cap after the manner of a contribution 
box, and I have known it returned as dry. 

You would think yourself at a beggar's opera; there 
are so many to solicit, that it is almost a hopeless task 
to give. In self-defence we hardened our hearts by 
rubbing a brickbat over them, and were soon known 



196 LETTERS FROM A 

for denials. The beggars seem to have a system of 
telegraph, and the information 'here is a gentleman 
that gives,' travels faster than the wight who would fain 
run away from his character because it is too good; 
though in your city I have known people try to escape 
their reputation for a contrary reason. 



NO. XII. 

Sir — We went on a beautiful day, when the sky 

was as blue as Miss 's stockings, to Pompeii, and 

what we there saw will be what I shall last forget, ex- 
cept a flogging at school. 

'Forsan et hczc olim meminisse juvahit.'' Indulge me with 
the relation. My schoolmaster had our Yankee habit 
of poking the fire : when it was burning well, he could 
make it burn better. This is a good principle to act 
upon in philosophy, though in medicine it brought the 
poor hypochondriac to his grave. 

Well, Sir, just before Magister Pokeweed came in 
(for he it was) and on a bitter cold day, I heated the 
tongs to a changeable blue heat and laid a smoking 
brand upon the hearth. The pedagogue's eyes glis- 
tened with pleasure. He seized the heated forceps 
with both his hands, but threw them down as if they 
had been vipers, and uttered, in his rage and pain, such 
imprecations as should have blistered his tongue. 

It is hard to keep a good secret ; it is hoarding trea- 
sure that belongs to the public. It soon transpired that 
I was the urchin that had taken retaliatory measures on 
Pokeweed's fingers ; for many times had he warmed 
my own. I had the heroic satisfaction that is the foun- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 197 

dation of all wars, of annoying my enemy as much a3 he 
could injure me, and dealing to him a larger measure of 
mortification and ungratified fury. 

But he is now a judge, and it is but a week since our 
hands met in amity, for who but a savage would carry 
into the world the little enmities of the school. 

We rode to Pompeii in a calash, drawn by one 
small, spirited horse. It is a sort of buggy, holding two 
gentlemen within and half dozen vagabonds clinging 
without. The charioteer stands on a board behind, and 
drives like Jehu, who drove furiously. He hires his 
horse by the day, and is willing to drive faster than is 
needful, to get the worth of his money; as I have 
known countrymen continue to eat when hunger 
was sated, (and that was not done in a minute) lest the 
host should gain too much from their moderation. This 
you will call a calumny, and I suppose it is. 

We gave our coachman a dollar a day, and the prom- 
ise of a carline, if he would be on his best behaviour, 
which he promised and perhaps performed, though he 
conducted very ill. We took a fair start from the quay, 
and descended the hill as if life depended upon speed. 
We crossed the bridge Madalina, and passed by the 
granary belonging to the king, who monopolizes grain, 
wool, lottery tickets, and tobacco ; but it would cost 
him his throne to lay a paw upon macaroni. The 
granary is as wide as Faneuil Hall (more or less) and 
I suppose half a mile in length. At the other end we 
paused to look at a few miserable galley slaves digging 
in the road. Slavery in its best disguise is ' bitter ;' but 
here it is in its naked, horrid deformity. I know not 
how many slaves there are, but there must be many, 
for the sound of chains as we passed the grated win- 
dows was as if hundreds were shaken at once. I have 
never seen them in large bodies, but they are sometimes 
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198 LETTERS RFOM A 

sweeping the streets in companies of half a dozen, 
chained to each other, and under the muzzle of a 
blunderbuss. They are fed so ill that they are fain to 
eat the offal of the streets. I have not known them 
beg, but mute solicitation is the strongest, and we seldom 
passed one without giving him a trifle, which was re- 
ceived with a start of surprise that any one should care 
for his necessities. Body and mind have such con- 
nexion that if the limbs are shackled the intellect is re- 
pressed and the whole man degraded. The Italian 
word to express everything base and vile is callivo y 
though at first designating only a captive. 

Portici, about four miles from Naples, is a city as large 
as Portsmouth, and there the monarch has a palace and 
gardens. The palace is a quadrangle with an area 
within, through which the street passes under opposite 
arches in the wall. This town is directly over Hercu- 
laneum, which is covered eighty feet with a hard shell 
of lava, so that here is one town upon another, and the 
living are walking about over the dead, as cool as un- 
dertakers, or as if they themselves were never to die, 
and be trampled on. Herculaneum was discovered less 
than a century ago, by men who were digging for water. 
It has been largely excavated, and we went into its 
theatre, though as our torch burnt dimly it seemed to us 
a cavern, as in truth it was. The statues have heen re- 
moved to the museum at Naples. Beyond Portici are 
many towns. 

At two miles further we encountered the van of a 
most ferocious army, every soldier booted to the knee, 
and whiskered to the chin. i Cedant arma togx,' is not 
the fashion of Naples. The military leaves the civil at 
an awful distance in the rear. In consequence of this 
happy state of things, a bloody-minded corporal took 
our horse a prisoner of war, and led him aside from the 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 199 

road, while the army deployed before us. There were 
ten thousand of these heroes, dressed in blue, and it 
was two hours before our steed could obtain his dis- 
charge. 

This ride of ours was parallel with the shore, and but 
a short distance from it ; but near to Pompeii, we turn- 
ed abruptly to the left, by a wide turnip field, and came 
at once upon the little town that looks as fresh as ever 
after the lapse of eighteen hundred years. It is in a 
spot the most beautiful under the sun ; it is worth the 
danger of an earthquake and lava to live in such a par- 
adise. The earth that still covers two thirds of the 
city is but light dust and ashes that fell so deep at a 
tremendous blast from Mount Vesuvius. 

This is six miles from the crater. The ashes reached 
but little above the' highest houses, though none of them 
were high. These ashes in coming this distance had 
been somewhat cooled, and so well, in this dry climate, 
have preserved what was under them, that the paintings 
and stucco of the walls are to this hour as fresh as the 
pictures in your own house. The roofs only (having 
been of wood) have decayed, so that at first sight you 
might be reminded of Asmodeus, who unroofed the 
houses at Madrid, for the instruction of Don Cleofas, 
as I shall describe for yours, those of Pompeii. 

We gave the cicerone, who derives his title from 
Tully himself, half a dollar for explanations, and he 
returned the worth of our money. Yet as we had a 
plan of the streets, we could have conducted 'ourselves 
but for that culpable compliance with evil customs that 
x has often led us into greater expenses. 

Let us begin at the gate that led to Naples. ' It is in 
a charming spot, and near it are tombs with inscrip- 
tions, where humble people (such is the lottery of fame) 
have had the fortune to leave their names to posterity, 






200 LETTERS FROM A 

while in these times, even a great man sometime sur- 
vives his reputation. 

In this quarter are the ruins of Cicero's villa, the 
third we had seen, though the other two were named 
on better authority. Some of his villas were presents 
from his rich clients, as like our Wirt, the Roman ora- 
tor drew causes from the most distant parts of the coun- 
try; for eloquence is like the fairy gift, that turns 
words, as they fall from the lips, into rubies, diamonds? 
and pearls. 

In passing down the streets we looked into many of the 
houses. One of them was a baker's, and had the very 
stone mills in which he made his flour j for in those 
days the baker ground the wheat, whereas he grinds 
now only his customers. 

Another shop appeared to have been for wine. There 
was a marble counter as bright as when new, with a 
stain from the liquors, and a place worn by a frequent 
setting down of the cup. The signs were over the 
doors, painted on the bricks of the walls. The letters 
are like those we call italics, though in the most of the 
monuments elsewhere, they are like the best of our 
capitals. 

Next we visited a few baths lately excavated. They 
are in excellent taste, with figures painted on the plaster 
of the walls. The baths seem to have been in Italy 
almost a necessary of life, and those of the emperors, 
are so magnificent that after a lapse of so many centu- 
ries their very ruins are grand. 

We came soon to a forum that would hold as many 
people as Faneuil Hall, and at one end was the little 
rostrum, which for Want of a stump, the orator as- 
cended to harangue the multitude in good Latin. 

There was a temple to Isis, with the altar and all 
things entire. The Romans seemed to give easy ad- 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 201 

mittance from other countries of the knowledge of every 
God but the True. Here it was, as I think, that the 
statue of Jupiter in terra colta was found. It is in the 
Museum at Naples.' The material is a coarse earthen 
ware, thought to be more lasting than marble itself, so 
that the better way to preserve the features of a great 
man, may be to fashion them in the clay whereof he is 
compounded, as the brown jug was moulded in the de- 
composition of Fat Toby. As the grave digger builds 
stronger than the carpenter, so may the potter's ware 
outlast the labors of the sculptor. 

We visited the two theatres, with stone seats rising 
in the form of a semicircle. There was no division into 
boxes, but each seat had a. number, and the tickets had 
numbers to match. The stages were not deep, and had 
little room for the actors, or the perspective of the 
scenes. Our Forty Thieves, and armies of three pla- 
toons, would have had no space to manoeuvre in. 

The Amphitheatre would be admired at Rome itself. 
Whenever the humane Romans had wild beasts to be 
worried, or gladiators to be butchered, they accorded 
to them a splendid arena, for few men grudge expense 
upon their pleasures. 

The private houses are generally small and built after 
the manner of the modern ones in Italy. In the middle 
there is a court, and from this is the entrance to the 
rooms which were none of them large; few of them 
fifteen feet square and many were less. The most 
commodious was the house of Diomed, unless I have 
forgotten names, though I have, in Parson Evans's 
phrase, a ' good sprag memory.' The house occupies 
a long front on the street, and back is a quadrangle, 
(which might have been lawn or garden,) enclosed by a 
half-subterranean suite of apartments. Here Diomed 
kept his good wines, and the large ten gallon earthen 



202 LETTERS FROM A 

jars are there to this day. It was in this cellar that 
about twenty skeletons were found. 

In such a retreat the people could not have been 
immediately killed. One of them was found resting 
against the wall in an upright posture, and another 
seems to have made a hole in the partition with an axe 
that was found near. 

The most of the inhabitants must have escaped with 
their valuable effects, for not many bodies were found, 
or much gold and silver. The bodies were discovered 
mostly in the better houses, whence I infer that the 
higher class was the last to run, having had more to lose, 
and having been less subject to panic than the lower, 

Though when the burst came it was like that of ten 
thousand mortars, yet there was reasonable warning 
that it was about to come, for before an eruption the 
wells are troubled, the earth trembles, and noise and 
flame come out of the mountain. 

We returned to Naples in the belief that the ancients 
had many household comforts, and more elegance than 
is found at present in the world. All the utensils and 
furniture found at Pompeii, and they are various and 
many, are in the Museum. The paintings were remov- 
ed to Portici, where they occupy an apartment in the 
palace, and are worth the examination of a modern ar- 
tist. 

On another day we hired a horse and man for an ex- 
cursion, to the places that lie adjacent to Miseno, a 
point that acquired its name from the trumpeter of 
JEneas. We galloped through the grotto of Pausillippo, 
with very little care for the bones of foot passengers, 
who when two carriages meet, stand upright against the 
walls and must contract themselves to their smallest di- 
mensions. There are a few days in the year when the 
sun near his setting shines through the whole cavern 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 203 

upon the village beyond. A rapid movement brought 
us, after several turns, to the quiet little Lake Agnano, 
surrounded by steep hills, and on the top of one is the 
high and airy convent of the Camalduli, for your monk, 
like a raven, knows how to choose a lofty place for his 
nest. This little lake used to have a wonder of its 
own; that is, the Grotta del Cane, or the Dog-hole. 
But knowledge has stripped it of all attractions, since 
any chemist can make the gas that issues from the bot- 
tom of this cave. It is like Lampedo's medicines, hu- 
manely tried upon a dog; and that emblem of fidelity 
has often been the victim of experimental philosophy 
The hole has rather an ill look, and the dog seemed 
aware of the nature of our business, for he howled pite- 
ously, and struggled like a salmon to break his line 
His blood-thirsty master, for the lucre of a pistareen, 
held his nose to the ground, when poor Tray gave us an 
involuntary specimen of suspended animation. When 
thrown upon the grass, he recovered in five minutes, 
and came and fawned upon his truculent master. We 
tried one breath at the gas, which took us by the noses 
after the manner of good mustard. 

This lake, like every other near Naples, fills the 
crater of an old volcano, and we went to another dell 
of the same origin, so steep that a slight wall on the 
edge is enough to confine the deer and other game that 
is kept there for the recreation of the King. This is 
called Astroni, and there is a hunting lodge in the 
woods, which is filled with bucks that have no fear of 
man, and wild boars as gentle as kittens. 

This whole dell reminded us of the Avernus of Vir- 
gil, though Avernus at present is more bare of trees 
than the Boston Common, for there is not even a huge 
elm for dreams to flutter upon. Next we went back a 
mile, to get into the road along the shore that leads to 



204 LETTERS FROM A 

Puzzuoli, opposite to Baia and Miseno, with a fine 
sweep of bay between. These points were formerly 
united by a bridge, and many of the arches now rise 
above the waters, having stood time, water, tempest, 
and earthquake, since the days of Caligula. 

This is something of a town, with a hotel and a few 
coffee-houses, a temple to Augustus converted into a 
church, and the foot of a gigantic statue to that best of 
princes, the placable Tiberius. Just without the town 
is the temple of Jupiter Serapis, that has now a few 
grand but prostrated columns of variegated marble. 
What a monument one of them would be on the Ex- 
change, surmounted by a figure of Sir Thomas Gresham, 
or some equally distinguished merchant of our times ! 
We need not go far, to find some who have given pal- 
aces to knowledge,who have made the East their tributa- 
ry, and whom it would be unjust to compare as men, with 
the best prince or merchant of the house of Medici. 

Next we turned to the right, up hill, by the ruins of 
Cicero's villa to a convent where they reverently shew 
the block on which Saint January was beheaded, and I 
seem to remember that there is a picture by that paint- 
er of tortures and martyrdoms, commonly called Spag- 
nuoletto. The friars were bowling on the green sward: 
we joined in the sport and beat them easily. 

We then walked about the pleasant fields, and came 
to excavations in the rock on the hill side, so extensive 
and regular with arches and pillars, that it is easy to be 
lost, among them. I can form no conjecture for what 
they were intended. We visited an amphitheatre with 
the inside overgrown with bushes, though the circuit of 
the walls is complete, and underneath are the dens 
where the beasts were kept for the amusement of that 
more rational animal, man. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 205 



NO. XIII. 



Sir — We came to a close in the last letter, at an old 
amphitheatre. Next we went to a smoking and sound- 
ing valley, that was a type of Tartarus. The hills that 
overhang it are encrusted with copperas, or something 
similar in appearance, and there is a smell of brimstone 
that is rather suspicious. Moreover, in the valley, we 
evidently walked on a crust, or shell, which sounded 
under our feet; I should not like to fall through. 

Mr Carter thinks, that in Yankee land, such a place 
would have been- bored into; so I think too, if the peo- 
ple should bore half as much as I do. All extremes are 
near to each other; underneath is fire and brimstone, 
but on the surface, in some parts, is the most beautiful 
heath we ever beheld. Smoke ascends from a great 
many spots, and from one place there is a constant 
blast, over which it is not safe to hold the hand at two 
yards. This is a miniature of a volcano, and the whole 
valley, which is called the Solfaterra, was once a crater. 
When Milton was in Italy, (where he was known and 
admired by the great, before a tardy fame was accorded 
him at home,) he visited the Solfaterra, and probably 
there acquired his conception of Satan walking over the 
' burning marie,' and leaning upon his cane as he hap- 
pened to scorch his foot. 

The order of memory leads us to Monte-Nuovo, or a 
mountain that was new, a century and a half ago, when 
it was thrown up by an eruption of a volcano, in a place 
that was always quiet, as a placid man like me may 
once in his life work himself up to an explosion of rage. 

We went down into the old crater, which is now 
covered with bushes, it is about a quarter of a mile 
deep, and in shape as regular as a tea-cup. Hav- 
18 



206 LETTERS FROM A 

ing descended the hill, we came to. a secluded valley, 

with a small reedy lake, having a temple on its bank, 

and frogs in its stagnant waters. The sides of the Val- 
es o 

ley were barren and bare of trees, and on the north was 
an arch, through which a road seemed to have led. 
This valley was Avernus, which I was sorry to have 
seen, for I prefer the description of Virgil to my own 
ocular impressions. We left it by the subterranean pas- 
sage under a hill, and came out on the other side, near 
to the shore, which we followed to Baia, passing some 
hot baths, in which we immersed our legs. At Baia, 
there is but a narrow strip of level land, which is shut 
in by hills, through which the road passed to Cuma. 
There are two or three temples on the shore, one to 
Diana, whom, at school, I used to like better than Ve- 
nus, though she has a temple also. The soil is filled 
with fragments of marble; everywhere we trod upon 
ancient grandeur, but of the tens of thousands of polished 
and luxurious Romans, who lived in this vicinity, tbere 
is not one stone of the houses left upon another — all is 
desolation and decay; neglect and drought are destroy- 
ing the finest portion of Italy. 

We toiled up the hill, on which stands the castle, and 
found a Dutch frigate at anchor beneath it. Then we 
walked down a lane, between vines and trees, to the 
FJysian Fields, (for the classic topography is affected,) 
where is a pool or two of water, with a few plover on the 
sand, but no majestic shades of heroes, poets, orators, 
or those who had invented- useful arts. 

We left Elysium with little regret, and returned to 
Cuma, where there are many indistinct ruins. Lake 
Fusarois near it, called by the ' knowing ones,' Acheron; 
this lake is an arm of the sea, and is a piscary of the 
king, having good oysters, and a fish like smelt. 



BOSTON merchant! 207 

We returned to Naples laden with antiques — a small 
head of Augustus, in bas relief, an old coin, too 
much bruised to discover the inscription, and therefore 
more valuable, as we can call it anything, three seals 
from a petrifying fountain, a slab frosi the temple of 
Diana, a cane from a myrtle at Avernur., and a counter- 
feit crown, received in change from our honest coach- 
man. 

It would be strange, in writing of Naples, to say 
nothing of Vesuvius. I might as well, in describing the 
features of a inan, omit the nose on his face, though at 
Naples, suet omissions might sometimes very naturally 
happen. We took a calash for Resina, a suburb of 
Portici, distant about four miles, whence we were to 
ascend, after the manner of the actors, ' when Roscius 
was an actor at Rome.' 

The man who keeps the gates of our Mountain,' is 
Salvatore Madonna, whose name is almost blasphemous: 
But he is a good soul, and the first honest man, or rogue 
with honest intervals, that we found about Naples; 
for we made no bargain, and he charged, on our return, 
but a dollar a-piece for jackasses, (not including the 
guide,) two bottles of Lagrima wine, two loaves, and 
six eggs to roast in the embers of the mountain. 

We set off* at a round trot equal to three miles an hour, 
but my dapple stumbled over one piece of lava, and 
threw my cheek on the rough surface of another. I 
tied him to a vine, and made the rest of the way on surer 
feet. Some way above the village, we passed the Gen- 
eral's house, which, I believe, was for a time the quar- 
ters of Championnet. Speaking of generals — as we 
came through Portici, we saw a regiment drawn out to 
receive some one with military honors; and who was the 
visiter but our old friend the Russian, who was dressed 
like a field marshal, and his ribs were covered with 



208 LETTERS FROM A 

crosses and stars. There is much in a good dress; it is 
a good character, till "a rogue is known, and it trans- 
formed our Russian from the mildest and most humble 
cap-in-hand man, to a soldier of dignified presencu, and 
noble bearing. 

Above the General's house, and on the brink of black 
fields of lava., is the Hermitage, where a monk sills 
good mountain wine, to which the general impiety has 
given the name of Laqhryma Chrisli. This is a plea- 
sant spot for a hermitage, removed above even the hum 
of men, but in front of the city, the bay, and countless 
towns and villages. Of the hermit I know nothing; but 
he has a good stand for such anchorites as Ambrose de 
Lamela. His prospects before are sufficiently attractive, 
but he has little temptation to cast his eyes behind. In 
front is a glittering scene, perhaps unequalled on the 
earth, but in the rear is the blackness of desolation. 
There is no green thing, nor anything but a wide ex- 
panse of lava and cinders. Having crossed this, we 
came to the ascent of the crater, which is, I should 
judge, nearly a mile. It is in shape, smoke, color, and 
steepness, like one of our coal pits, and covered with 
dark ashes, in which tho foot sinks deeply. My guide 
chose the easiest route to the lower gap of the crater. 
and walked before, giving me a hold on his sash to help 
mo upwards, to the summit. Here we rested awhile, 
with smoke around and lire beneath us; but, unlike the 
Jews in the wilderness, we had a view of the happy 
country before us, a land tlowing with milk and honey. 
We stood like conquerors, with glory before us, an<< 
desolation in the rear. 

The crater within is more steep than on the outside; 
yet it could be descended by ropes; but it has swallowed 
one philosopher already, and why should 1 feed it with 
the body of another? The smoke ascends steadily, but 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 209 

when your eyes become accustomed to the obscurity of 
the den, you can discover* its bottom. It is apparently 
an arch of hardened lava, fallen in at places where there 
are gaps and cracks, for the passage of smoke and flame. 
The crater is, I should conjecture, more than half a mile 
across. On putting our ear to the crevices in the ascent, 
we could hear the roaring of flame as in an oven, but 
could see nothing but smoke. At these crevices, the 
ashes are hot enough to burn a boot or roast an egg, 
and we tested both by actual experiments. 

At a higher point of the cratur, (I use the Irish or- 
thography,)- was a lady and two gentlemen, who had 
come up without a guide, over a difficult route. We 
scrambled up to them, and gave the lady, who was 
French, the best of our refreshments. 

The air at this altitude had somewhat of a chill, after 
the perspiration of the ascent. We descended on a plane 
so much inclined, th.it the principle of gravitation almost 
made us slide, and as our footing in the ashes was secure, 
we ventured upon steps that might well be called strides. 
If measured, there would have been a result of five 
yards at a jump. Before we left the summit, wo had 
given an impulse to several large stones, which rolled 
down the mountain, raising tracks of dust, and plough- 
ing into it like cannon balls. Now was the time when 
the lady shewed her aptitude to learn a mischievous les- 
son, and her gratitude for our good wine, for she set two 
or three rocks rolling at once, and as they came in our 
track, it seemed to give her pleasure to see us skipping 
about to avoid them. It was of small use to call to her, 
and when we made signals of distress, she pretended to 
be very intent upon the crater. Having stood several 
discharges, the war became too hot, and we tied a white 
cravat to the guide's staff, and began to reascend for a 
parley. The enemy, upon this, retreated higher up the 
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'210 LETTERS FROM A 

mountain, to her allies, and by the soul of Suwarrow, had 
she fallen into my hands, I would have omitted none of 
the usages of war. 

Having repelled this Amazonian attack on the rear 
guard, wc retreated in more safety than honor. Two 
days afterwards, I met the same lady in the Chaija, 
when she began a grave apology, and laughed in the 
midst of it. 

The monk came out to congratulate us on our safe 
return, informing us that c our mountain ' had of late 
shewn evil symptoms, but he relied for insurance upon 
St January, more than his own merits, though neither 
would reduce the premium with underwriters. We 
asked him to give us a sketch of his life and opinions, 
but he said his life was a blank, and it was his opinion 
that the amount of piety was in proportion to the number 
of pater nosters. We looked into a few of his books of 
sacred literature, consisting of the lives of the saints, 
and the deaths of martyrs. He asked our country, 
which we told, when he requested that we would send 
him a couple of birds that could talk, and the same re- 
quest had been made to us before. 

At Salvatore's house we had a cold cut, and made a 
small collection of his lavas and minerals. We told him 
that we had found him more honest than his countrymen, 
but he assured us he was no better than the rest. 

The people of Naples seem to be more cheerful than 
those of Rome. The reason must be, that good wine 
and macaroni are cheaper here, that there is less restric- 
tion in public amusement, and more of the dolec far 
niente. 

The Neapolitans are a handsome race of men, and I 
ound a great resemblance between the ladies and those 
of South Wales. In both places they have large and 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 211 

brilliant eyes., and an air of languor that may be 
instantly succeeded by the greatest animation. Here 
they may be said to act less from reflection than feeling; 
when the impulse is good, all is well; but when bad — 
alas! alas! 

Perhaps they do not prize too high the honor of their 
lords, or instill the lessons of Lucretia into their chil- 
dren. But custom defends a great many evils, and it 
requires a mind of no common mould to do right, where 
it is the universal custom to do wrong; and therefore we 
deem it a sufficient excuse for the coarseness even of 
Shakspeare, to lay the fault upon the age in which the poet 
lived. Whence it follows, in my catenation ofdeduction, 
that a lady who is sometimes frail in Italy, may not be half 
so lost and degraded as one who once forgets her duty 
here. Here, though ' all be lost but honor,' it may be 
retrieved; but there is no hope of amendment in those 
who fall, in spite of the barriers that our state of society 
raises for their support. They cannot fall, but when 
the mind is tainted with a moral leprosy, beyond all hope 
of cure. 

The Lazzaroni, as T told you before, are a philosophic 
race of vagabonds, or sturdy beggars, somewhat like the ,' 
Gipseys in England. Their employment is begging and I 
fishing; and their pleasure, like that of Diogenes, is to I 
1 lie in the sun.' Like the rest of their countrymen, they 
have no indifferent subject for conversation; everything 
is a subject for excitement. They cannot speak in an 
under tone, and if they try to whisper, it is as an actor 
speaks aside on the stage, that all the house may hear 
him. Their voices on a high key are harsh and disso- 
nant, but when they speak very low, it is like the mur- 
mur of music. The shades of emotion pass over their 
faces, as in a child. In our cold region ot sarcasm and 



212 LETTERS FROM A 

selfishness, a man must conceal his emotions betimes; 
therefore a wise one, with us, assumes some hard and 
uniform expression of face, to hide his thoughts, as three 
foot ice conceals the wimples of the stream. 

But where the sun burns a darker crimson in the 
cheek, and sheds tenfold lustre on the eye, neither eye 
nor cheek are taught, or can practice, this lesson of de- 
ception. The passion of the moment is pictured on the 
face, and in the street you pass men smiling, frowning 
and weeping, agitated with hope, fear, hatred, disap- 
pointment, and revenge. 

The men, many of them, wear mustaches, and have 
rings in the ears. They look very much like black- 
guards, and have a vile custom of kissing each other on 
both sides of the mouth, for I once had to run the 
gauntlet between fifteen pair of mustaches. 



IVO. XIV. 



Sir — The Neapolitans are a cheerful race, extracting 
from a carline more hilarity than I could ever squeeze 
from a ducat; for some fear of the future, or experience 
of the past, would arise to annoy me. But the present 
only enters into their thoughts, or rather feelings, and 
under a sky so soft, in a land so teeming with abun- 
dance, and" so stamped with beauty, even the wise might 
place too much of their enjoyment on the present and 
passing day. 

< But how shall I describe the ladies of Naples? They 
are graceful brunettes, with faces of great expression, 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 213 

and ' hair long and dark, like a tempestuous winter 
night.' Without doubt, they are as exemplary in their 
lives as the matrons of Rome and Florence, patterns for 
conjugal fidelity, and all the domestic virtues, though 
not very industrious or literary; they toil not, neither do 
they read. 

There is at Naples a small race of horses, but they 
are hardy and strong. The cows are as large as our 
oxen, and their horns are a yard long. The milk is not 
sold as here, from tin canisters and yellow wagons-; for 
the cow is led round, and milked before the purchaser, 
who must even then have his eyes about him, lest he 
buy lime and water. 

1 The milk of the country is white, 
But the milk of the city is blue.' 

The butter is not good; it is sold in little rolls, wrapped 
in green leaves. Bread is excellent and cheap; a loaf 
large enough for breakfast may be had for a cent, and 
the whole meal may be completed for three cents more. 
The coffee houses are many, but you may walk far with- 
out seeing a dram shop; I saw not one. It was my 
custom to dine at a cook-shop, where a bill of fare, with 
prices, is given, and one may dine for a dime or a dol- 
lar; but I got ten dinners out of a dollar. At the trat- 
toria, a monk sought my acquaintance, asking my name, 
and saying that his own was Father Felippo. He was 
a barefooted friar, of such bulk as is seldom acquired by 
abstinence; and it was a cheap pleasure for me to feast 
him upon parmesan and macaroni. He ate it after the 
manner of all true Neapolitans, and of the king himself. 
He threw back his head, as if to examine a fresco over 
it, and holding the long vermiform strings of his favor- 
ite food above his open mouth, would gain much in time 
and quantity over him who fed with a spoon. I never 



214 LETTERS FROM A 

saw, in human face, more satisfaction than illuminated 
the monk's broad features, at the sight of macaroni. 

The mountain of fat piled upon Father Felippo's ribs, 
could not suppress the liberal curiosity of an inquisitive 
mind. He asked me, concerning America, a great 
many judicious questions — if it were an island, if all our 
birds could talk, if we had a large fish that gave us oil, 
and if there were among us any Christians, monks, or 
nuns. I answered for the credit of the country as well 
as I could; but I fear that the Republic suffered in the 
estimation of the Church, for I could but say that we had 
the fish and the birds, though we were too little enlighten- 
ed to have monks or nuns. I expressed a belief that we 
had many vestals, at which he displayed a row of ivory fit 
for Othello, and said, ' that 's quite a different affair.' 

I visited the monk at his quarters, on a hill; I have 
seen many convents, arid not one that was not in a well 
chosen place. The monks have equal judgment in the 
interior of their hives, and make (as has been said) a 
straight passage from (he refectory to the kitchen, while 
the route to the chapel is often circuitous. From Fe- 
lippo's nest I saw the whole campagna felice, its vines, 
and its gardens, enclosed by the Appenines. The coun- 
try is an Eden; but it is a paradise of felons. It is 
Lord Say's Kent, bona terra mala gens. 

I went to hear a preacher, who was, I believe, a Fran- 
ciscan, for he had a rope as a girdle, that would have 
made a better collar. He was much followed. His 
harangues that I heard were upon the sufferings of the 
martyrs. He described, and not without force, the suf- 
ferings that so many painters were well pleased to repre- 
sent — torture for the sake of faith; and he hoped, he 
said, to live to see his hearers suffer with constancy. I 
seemed to have gotten into a Me:hodist conventicle, for 
the people would grcan at a solemn denunciation, and 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 215 

applaud the encouragement and promises. His action 
was too violent for our stage, but gentle enough for a 
mountebank. He praised also the sanctity of hermits, 
and referred to Ambrose de Lamela, upon the mountain, 
living like a saint, in a black and desolate waste, without 
animal or vegetable life, where the sun illuminates the 
broken points of lava, only to throw the cavities into a 
deeper and more awful shade; as a good impulse some- 
times falls upon the heart of a bad man, that he may dis- 
cover, from the contrast, his own dark depravity. 

There is, a vast palace of red stone, called the Bour- 
bon Museum, very rich in sculptures and other antiqui- 
ties. On entering one of the halls of statues, you find 
yourself amorg objects like the inhabitants of the eastern 
tale, who were turned, by enchantment, into stone, in 
the midst of their employments — dancing, wrestling, 
fighting, or declaiming. ' Is it petrified nature, or ani- 
mate marble!' 

Before I saw busts and statues, I knew not how ne- 
cessary they were to the study of history; but when I 
now read of a very good or a very bad man of antiquity, 
my imagination has his very features to fix upon. 

In this Museum is, what is rare, a statue of Caligula. 
There were many statues of him while he lived, but at 
his lamented death, almost all were destroyed. The 
Roman people held him in such singular reverence, that 
it renewed their grief for his loss, to see so many of his 
images in marble; and therefore a swift destruction over- 
took them all. 

Caracalla, too, was so vain of his own soft features, that 
he caused so many busts to be made, that many remain 
for the reverence of posterity. The expression in all is 
lowering and sulky, for the sculptors flattered him as 
little as the historians; but, like Napoleon, I do not be- 
lieve that these Roman Emperors were half so bad as 



216 LETTERS FROM A 

represented. What is the evidence of history, and how 
remote is the chance of coming at the truth (even in our 
own times) of what we do not see, and if seen, of warp- 
ing the evidence of our senses to the dictate of our wills. 
Yet to judge of Caracallafrom the features he has left in 
marble, would not be to esteem him a very placable 
prince. In fact, if I should see a man so scowl at. me 
from behind a rock m the Pyrenees, I should have little 
hope of safety in appealing to his mercy. 

' There was a laughing Devil in his sneer, 
That raised emotions both of rage and fear, 
And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, 
Hope, withering fled, and mercy bid farewell.' 

Perhaps you can fancy the high relish with which the 
populace smashed- such busts upon the pavements. 

There is a bust or two, and a statue, of Julius Caesar, 
who left the empire to so many amiable princes of his line. 
Augustus was the first, and he had a heart of adamant. 
He was the very man to consolidate the despotism, and 
to cover his power under names of liberty, leaving little 
for his successors to do, but to administer the supreme 
power, which Tiberius did so well. 

Tiberius, when age had softened a few asperities in a 
temper not naturally rough, issued those just and equi- 
table decrees, that have given him so distinguished a 
place in history, and so flattering a picture for the pen- 
cil of Tacitus. But he was a better man than his adop- 
tive father, and had in his proscriptions and murders, at 
least the wolf-like and man-like motive of revenge; while 
Augustus was a cool, calculating wretch, doing nothing 
from passion, but all from policy. Having, like Jaffier, 
1 deceived the senate,' he probably deluded himself, and 
died in the belief that he was no worse than other men, 
but even a prince distinguished for mercy and clemency. 
But I would rather have the heart of Nero, and act from 
his wild, mad impulses, than from the craft of Augustus. 



BOSTON MERCHANT. 217 

Nero has claims upon our remembrance. His face 
was round, and expressed imbecility rather than violent 
passion. He had the same kind of face that you will 
often see enlivened by a small, leaden, pig's eye. 

But do you think that the old Romans really had those 
enormous hooked noses? I thought so too; for I read 
Virgil, in a Dutch edition, with plates, in which iEneas 
was represented in the likeness of the King William, 
whose nose was anything but a pug. 

Cicero, indeed, had a magnificent aquiline, Julius 
Caesar was a little hooked in the beak, and Augustus 
and Titus had something large in 'he way of nose, but 
in general, the busts have as great a variety as you 
would find in the same number of faces in any other 
country. 

I could go on, sir, in this desultory manner, stringing 
together my recollections like artificial pearls, till 
the winter session comes to editorial relief. But if a 
merciful man should be kind to his beast, he cannot 
surely be hard with his friend. When you reflect that this 
is my second crop of reminiscences of Italy, and that I 
knew not in one week what I was to write the next, it 
will not much stretch your charity to overlook a thou- 
sand faults. In the letters from the Alps, I claim a 
greater immunity; for I was never there, and had no 
leisure to examine books and correct the careless journal 
of a friend. But l forever and forever farewell,' Italy, 
garden of the world, land of song, of solemn temples, 
crumbling arches, glorious recollections, beauty and 
banditti, masses and macaroni. 

From Naples I went to Sardinia, where I passed a 
week, with little pleasure. It was in a brig from Palermo, 
that we anchored in a little harbor off the Straits of 
Bonifacio. The crew went ashore and raised supplies 
of mutton, 'after the manner of the tribe of Benjamin.' 
19 



'218 LETTERS FROM A 

Near Corsica vvc passed, at some distance, an Eng- 
lish bark, and happening to have an American flag, 
we ran it up, but without return of civility. Perhaps 
the Sicilian flag would have attracted more favor, for 
an Englishman is not over much delighted to meet a 
republican navy in these seas. 

' Gens inimica mifii Tyrhennum navigat a&quor.' 
I met in Italy a great many Englishmen — but what do 
you know of Mr Bull. It is an impostor tbat goes by 
that name in America, a runaway servant, wearing his 
master's dress, and trying to ape his manner. But in 
Italy there are no trading cocknies, and (he English 
there are the rich, the titled, and the learned. But they 
were seemingly so unsocial and cold, that they remind- 
ed ine of a good chestnut, in the burr, for they proved, 
upon acquaintance, better than they seemed. In seve- 
ral solitary walks, I met a Briton; we passed, but not 
like dogs, for they will look at each oilier; yet we wero 
among broken columns, that had for centuries declared 
the folly of human pride. Again we met at IMiscno, ' by 
the upbraiding shore,' but the ocean upbraided in vain. 
Our next meeting was at the rooms of a friend, who 
brought the two extremes together. 

On the voyage to Gibraltar we had a gale, and it gave 
us no pleasure, while it lasted, to see the sea fowl forsak- 
ing their element, and making for the shove. I had little 
confidence in the sailors, anil they had none in them- 
selves. Capt. Grannnatieo wrung his hands, and cursed 
himself for a fool, that he did not enter Carthagena, and 
I agreed with him in sentiment. But we had now no- 
thing to do but to scud along the shore. The coast of 
Spain seemed to us beautiful beyond comparison; tho 
hills were green, in the valleys were towns, and on tho 
hills castles and monasteries. We were driving rapidly 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 219 

into a part between Barbary and Spain, where the sea 
was narrow, and our ill managed vessel was already 
shattered. My forebodings were dismal, and I defy you 
to feel less at ease than I felt, till the second morning, 
when the wind abated. While it raged, the master did 
little but cross himself and the coming waves. I kept 
myself as cool as was convenient, but none of us -felt at 
ease, till we doubled the point of Europa. 

Now, sir, like great men in politics, I quit the ground 
whereon I have stood so long, and request your favor 
to my Recollections of Japan; for twentyseven misspent 
years ago I was at Nangasaki. I might indeed change 
my signature, and cheat the public, but I could not de- 
ceive you, who would at once know the old dog, though 
in a new doublet. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 



a 



NO. I. 



SrR — Early in l^e present century, I sailed from Ba- 
tavia for Nangasaki, in Japan; I have a few loose mem- 
oranda, like the Sybil's responses, on separate leaves, 
and from these I state that in July we arrived at our 
port. On passing the South Cavallos, an island at the 
mouth of the harbor, we saluted with nine guns; then 



220 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 

at Fapenberg, which made the larboard point of the 
bay, we gave the Japanese nine more, when we were 
boarded by the upper Banjo. We were surrounded 
by an incredible number of boats, that came to tow 
us up should there happen to be a calm, but we 
had breeze enough. Two miles higher, we passed the 
Emperor's watch, two small forts on each side of the 
bay, and there we burnt powder for eighteen guns, nine 
from each quarter. Two miles farther is the place of 
anchorage, where we let go anchor, and having roared 
with our mortar thirteen times more, the stately cere- 
monial was over. 

The ship was dressed according to the custom here, 
in all the ensigns she could muster. The powder was 
then taken from us to be carried on shore, and we were 
deprived also of our boats; the roll was called, and an 
account taken of us all; when, having undergone the 
strictest search, I was permitted to go on shore, where 
I was searched again, and a third time at the entrance 
of the Watcrport, on the island Decima, where I was 
led to the Dutch governor, who gave me his welcome 
and the port regulations in Dutch. 

A large corps of Tallars came also to the governor to 
ask the news of Europe; the questions were asked with 
shrewdness and the answers written down for the Em 
peror at Jeddo, The city is distant fourteen days' travel, 
at the rate of the mail, which goes fast. When the 
strange looking interpreters had gone, I walked round 
the island,, which is but small; it is artificially raised 
upon the flats that surround Nangasaki, and in ordinary 
tides it is but ten feet above water. The island is sur- 
rounded with a wall ten feet high, with spikes on the 
top; through the wallare two gates — the waterport and 
the gate that leads to the city. The island is joined to 
the city by a bridge about forty rods in length, and over 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 221 

this space the water is conveyed in bamboos to the isl- 
and. After rains it is troubled, but, having settled, it 
is good water. 

Decima was built by the. Portuguese, and when they 
were ordered, in consequence of their christian zeal, to 
retire from Japan, the Dutch were removed from Ve- 
randa here; and they do not seem to have enough of 
that kind of zeal to lead them into peril of banishment. 
The fire once swept the whole island, though it is 
now built over, and has several large and commodious 
stores. The Dutch factory has a garden, with vegeta- 
bles, good peaches, and sour grapes. There is an up- 
perhoft, or director, who has a private secretary — a 
pack-house master and three writers — a doctor, a car- 
penter, and a steward, which make in all nine whites, 
but they have a great many Japanese servants, some of 
whom speak and write Dutch with precision. The pay 
of the Company's officers is not so great that the offices 
are much sought; the 'governor himself longed to 
return to Batavia, though he had been here but a year. 
They have but five per cent, on sales in Japan, and 
as much on the return cargo; of this the director takes 
sixty per cent., the pack-house master twenty, the secre- 
tary ten, and the three writers and the doctor, divide 
the other ten; the steward and carpenter have low wages 
and nothing more. 

A fev. years before we came, when three or four 
large ships arrived, the commission was respectable, 
and the director had little desire to go to Batavia; 
though like all ambitious people, he looked for better 
times. 

However, a good table and low monthly wages are 

furnished at the expense of the Company. The rent 

paid to the Japanese government yearly for the island, 

is ten thousand rix dollars. The houses are built low 

19* 



222 . KECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

and strong from fear of earthquakes; the doctor told us 
that in 1799, there were thirty shocks in one day, and 
that a large, town on a mountain ten miles off, was swal- 
lowed with ahout three thousand people. But what is 
that in such an ant-hill as Japan? 

The first officer of the customs is called the upper 
Banjo, and no store can he opened or business transact- 
ed without him. The ship is guarded night and day by 
two armed boats, and nothing is landed nor i&any one al- 
lowed to go on shore, but on the strictest examination. 
"When the cargo is discharged, it is an important, day 
for the customhouse officers; the first secretary of the 
Japanese governor comes on board in pomp and parade 
with many attendants, while the' ship is decked in all 
her flags to honor the representative. 

The Japanese are a very polite people, and they 
have polished the Dutchmen, who salute the Banjos 
according to the forms in the code of propriety. The 
first manoeuvre is to place the hands upon the knees, to 
bow the head almost t . the ground, and lift it only when 
directed, though an interval of ten minutes precedes 
the direction. 1 have seen two reporters thus crouched 
for an hour aild a half, till the upper Banjo told them to 
rise, and they dared not till then raise even their eyes. 
When the representative of the governor comes on 
board, the rules of civility (which are more strictly en- 
forced than in our own country) require that the Dutch- 
men, governor and all, lie upon the deck; but the Dutch 
are an accommodating people, and would carry their 
complaisance as far as Japanese punctilio could possibly 
require. 

Once in four years, the governor, secretary, and doc- 
tor, make a visit to Jeddo, to carry the Company's pre- 
sents to the Emperor. The journey is completed in 
about four months, and the presents go in a cavalcade, 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 



223 



which is closed by an. army of tallars; in the interme- 
diate years, four tallars are sent with a few presents to 
report affairs to the Emperor. 

The last governor died in his pilgrimage, and is buri- 
ed near Meaco; permission was not readily, granted 
for his interment, and the condition on which he was 
buried was to shave his head and receive a Japanese 
name. The doctor who accompanied this governor, was 
at Nangasaki, where be lived eight years, and must 
have seen much of the customs of the country, though 
he was rather shy in his communications; I was suffi- 
ciently inquisitive, but all the company's servants seem- 
ed jealous of us, and were unwilling to speak of Japan, 
or else had nothing to say. 

In this journey to Jeddo, the mode of travelling is in 
palankeens, till the company comes to a place where it 
takes boats to thread among the countless islands around 
Niphon; and the voyage in the barks is of about four- 
teen days. 

The Emperor liv.es at Jeddo, and the Diari, a sort of 
Pontifex Maximus, at Meaco; he is an object of the 
most profound veneration, and is held to be a type of 
i the Divinity. ^ 

Charlevoix calls the Japanese the English of Asia; 
but which Islanders did he wish to compliment? At 
first, I thought these people a sort of Dog-Chinese; but 
more known, I rated them, higher; they are more affa- 
ble, polite, brave, and kind, than the Chinese, though 
it is hard to settle their relative honesty. 

There is among the islander's, a feeling that leads them 
to act to the extent of their wild code of honor; of 
course, duelling is a frequent practice, especially among 
the military, and^those in high employments at court. 
Their manner of fighting is what ours sometimes is not, 
a test of the courage and fortitude of the parties; in 



224 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 

our rencontres, both parties often escape a wound, but 
in Japan a gash is the very preliminary of the combat, 
for the party who desires satisfaction or revenge, meets 
his enemy, whisks out his hanger, rips up his own belly, 
and infamy is the portion of the other, if he fail to do 
the same. Generally, they fear death as little as you 
fear eating an egg when it is good. It is a lesson in- 
stilled into youth (as it was tried to get Latin into me) 
that death is a lighter evil than dishonor, and their after 
life has opportunities enough to practice on. these early 
principles. 

To offend the Emperor is, of course, to deserve death, 
and to die; commonly, the culprit executes himself, for 
by this anticipation, no dishonor falls upon his lineage, 
nor is there a confiscation of estate; but his childron 
inherit with his good name, their father's wealth. Some- 
times, however, the man with many titles conceives of- 
fence, like Tiberius, in the secret recessesof his own 
inscrutable heart, and the offender, with regard to this 
life, is like a tenant at sufferance, who has little notice 
to quit. At other times, the man with the diadem sends 
forth the mandate that the venerated Roman sent to 
Seneca — to die, and the message is as cooly received, 
and executed. When the Emperor would confer honor, 
he sends also a sword, wherewith to do the business 
with despatch, though you hate a pun; the person thus 
honored with the imperial orders, invites his friends 
to a last banquet, talks of the immortality of the soul, 
and liberates his own, by a sudden jerk, from its mortal 
incumbrances. When we shall have an Emperor in 
North America, I hope to see the same custom among 
the people, and I should like even now to see Japanese 
duelling substituted for ours, inasmuch as it is more ra- 
tional, and has greater certainty of satisfaction. Some- 
times, to be a good shot, argues a consciousness of 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 225 

timidity, and were all our duellists compelled to hit 
themselves in the spot where they wish to strike their 
enemy, there would be less practice in small gunnery. 
But after all that has been said and preached, is it worse 
to hew the limbs in combat than to hack the character 
in calumny? Is open hostility though violent, as de- 
moralizing as secret enmity, covered with hypocrisy as 
a leprosy, and plotting vengeance while it seems to offer 
peace? I am a peaceful citizen, without talent or taste 
for war, but my system shall be storm and sally, not 
mine and countermine. 

We deceive others, but first we delude ourselves; we 
think that we are just, and we are praised for justice, 
when we pay for what we buy: we should censure our- 
selves a little, and others more, to refuse, when able to 
pay our debts. What W% our debts ?"~do we owe noth- 
ing to men more valuable than gold? Would any man 
part with his good name for money, and do we not refuse 
to render justice where it is fairly due, by speaking well 
of those we honor and dislike? 

There are in Japan a countless number of priests, 
devotees and pilgrims: the religion is in some points like 
the Roman Catholic, for the temples abound with ima- 
ges, that may be called idols. One temple at Meaco has 
33,333, and it is called from that number — Scmmen-San- 
sin-Sanbiak- Sansieu- Santai. 

As the Japanese know nothing of the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, but misjudge it, from the catholic zeal of the 
Portuguese, who tried to extend their faith with little 
choice of means; it is hardly strange that the cross 
should not be held in reverence. Therefore one day is 
set apart in the calendar, when they offer indignity to 
that sign of our salvation, and even small children are 
led up that they may trample upon it. The calendar 
has besides this, a reasonable allowance of festivals* 



226 . RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

some at the full, and others at the change of the moon: 
and there was a star-feast celebrated once while I was at 
Japan, which was honored by a profusion of lamps hung 
on the outside of the houses. 

But the most poetical, and the most popular is the 
feast of souls, held in memory of friends who are dead. 
It continues four days, and is worthy the imitation of a 
more refined people. On the first dny of the feast there 
is prepared in each family a profusion of viands, that 
would not disgrace our own feast of thanks: the feast how- 
ever is on the succeeding night, and like Hamlet's wed- 
ding banquet, it is cold. At this all the friends of the fam- 
ily are invited and a place and plate assigned to the de- 
ceased; whether they actually rise and occupy it, like 
Banquo, I know not, but the dead are welcomed with 
grave ceremonial; for questions are put to them, which 
are permitted to be answered by deputy, and some one of 
the living replies to what is said in behalf of his constit- 
uents, the dead. The next day (like our days succeed- 
ing midnight feasts) is devoted to sleep, and at night the 
numberless thousands of the city and surrounding coun- 
try pour out to the semi-circle of hills, which is the 
place of the tombs As the tombs are on the sides of 
the mountains, and as there are probably a hundred 
lamps to one person, the sight is a brilliant one, as the 
lights seem to be dancing about in a maze of splendor 
as you will see in June, on the meadows, at our festival of 
the lightning-bugs. On the next day comes a long siesta, 
and on the evening of this day the lights arc seen advanc- 
ing from the mountains, and converging to the water side 
in front of the city. At the same time there is a numer- 
ous fleet direct from Lilliput, made of straw and fur- 
nished with paper sails; the lamps are put on board and 
the ships, three feet long, are set adrift, amid the shouts 
of some hundred thousand people. 



RECOLLECTIONS 6f JAPAN. 227 

I think there may have been five thousand barks thus 
fitted with lights, and as the wind drove them out in 
various directions, and the flames communicated to the 
straw, paper, and oil, it was a glorious sight to see, bet- 
ter in my estimation than the battle of the Nile. 

The Japanese funerals are only by night, and the 
body is buried in a kneeling posture in a tub; at the 
grave the hair of the deceased which has been previ- 
ously cut, is burnt, together with a great many paper 
lamps. The priest then stamps the character of the 
deceased upon the forehead, and the clerical estimate of 
merit is dependant on the price given for a certificate; 
however, a little money will buy a good name, and the 
priest, like our epitaphs, is seldom known to speak ill of 
the dead — a forbearance that I recommend to you and 
others concerning the living. 



NO. II. 

Sir, — A Japanese claims a higher origin than a Vir- 
ginian, or even a New England man; it is recorded as 
the 'commencement of the annals that a few hundred 
centuries ago an Emperor of China, who, like some other 
great men, had lived so ill that he felt a reluctance to 
die, asked his physician for medicines that would ena- 
ble him to live forever. 

The doctor looked grave, said the request was rea- 
sonable, and might be obtained; there is, said he, an 
island far to the east, covered with flowers and odorif- 
erous trees, where I must gather the simples that are 
to make your majesty live as long as the latest of your 
posterity. But they must be plucked under the plane- 



228 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

tary influences, and to propitiate the skies, there must 
be a company of three hundred youths and virgins, 
which I would select from the best of the celestial em- 
pire. This wise prince sent his physician at the head 
of the train, with which it was the doctor's secret policy 
to found a colony in Japan, and from this spotless stock 
descended the present people of the islands. 

The priests seem to borrow some profitable maxims 
from the Catholics, and a gainful trade is carried on in 
the sale of indulgencies; an indulgency is supposed to 
be a better thing than an absolution, though for the latter 
the priest demands the higher price. The dress of these 
sacerdotal brokers is like that of a capuchin friar; the 
head, too, is shaven, and there is a string of beads. 

There is a general diversity in points of religious be- 
lief; the Japanese believe in a Supreme Being, and a 
future state of punishments and rewards; but these 
general truths are obscured by a thousand wild errors. 
There are no quarrels for religion, and every creed is 
tolerated but the true. They have such a paynim ha- 
tred of Christians that it is surprising they do not favor 
Jews; they have more ceremonies and mummery than 
can be described; they have pilgrimages to the tombs of 
saints, and other places considered holy. They are 
given to repetitions in their prayers, and there are cer- 
tain shrines of saints by the road side, where it is 
thought advantageous to repeat them a great many 
times. 

That travellers in haste may have the full benefit 
without delay, there is an ingenious way to pray by 
machinery ; this is a small engine with a crank, where 
the needful prayers are written on a barrel wheel, and 
every twist of the crank turns one out. Were the Yan- 
kee people Catholic, to pray to Saint George, and Saint 
January, this would be the very device for that labor- 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 229 

saving race, though in these times there is a little too 
much friction to their wheels. 

There were at Nangasaki seven Chinese junks from 
Amoy, a large town in the province of Fokein, on the 
Straits of Formosa. Fourteen commonly arrive in 
the year, and each junk takes away thirteen hundred 
chests of copper, for there is a restriction that no more 
6hall be taken; their other lading consists in a few 
sharks's fins, and in lacquered ware. The junks are 
not of the largest class, and, considering the model, it is 
amazing that they should ever reach Japan; they would 
be but queer tubs in the Bay of Biscay. They seem 
capacious, like a Dutch galliot, but it is only because 
they are so high forward and aft, for they are shallow 
in the water. The sails are of mats and the anchors 
are of wood, for the Chinese are too proud and too bigot- 
ed to old usages to copy the light model of European 
chips. On the largest junk mast is a square sail of 
about half an acre (more or less;) there is no reefing 
this kind of canvass — but there are small apertures, 
like doors, in the middle of the sail, which are opened 
and shut. 

The Japanese bestow certain hospitable attentions up- 
on their friends, the Chinese; that is, they pen them up 
like sheep, and haul the junks high and dry ashore. 
The Chinese have a national aptitude for smuggling, 
which gift has been cultivated by art, and with all the 
Japanese caution, there is a brisk trade that is not on 
the books of the customs. 

There was an affray between the officers of the rev- 
enue and the crew of a junk; contraband goods were 
on board, and the officers were received with the cere- 
mony of a volley of missiles. It is strange that the of- 
fenders escaped so easily; they had but a hundred 
lashes apiece, except the officers who had double, 
20 



230 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

though as the crew was large, I pitied the floggers, for 
on a melting hot day they had to lay on about forty 
thousand lashes. The Chinese made horrid grimaces; 
but had the Dutch committed a crime like this, a hard 
death would have followed it, for the Japanese would as 
soon suffer their own dogs to turn upon them. 

The upper Banjo, or chief officer of the customs was a 
man of such natural shrewdness and untiring persever- 
ance, that it was thought he would have a higher place 
at Jeddo; he permitted me to read the invoices of the 
articles brought from China, which were sugar candy, 
silks, clothes, porcelains, hard-ware, cardamum seed, 
betel-nut, gold in bars, liquorice root, and sandal wood. 

All the metals of Japan are of the best quality; the 
copper is excellent, and as to steel, the best tools I ever 
had were brought from Japan. There are mines of gold, 
which it is the wise policy of the Emperor to close; there 
is one in sight of Nangasaki, guarded day and night, as if 
access to it would depopulate or demoralize the country. 

While at Nangasaki, I was permitted several times 
to go freely and unattended into the town, where I was 
treated with the utmost kindness. There was an alac- 
rity to show me what I desired to see, and to minister 
to my convenience, that showed a good heart in the 
Japanese. I do not remember to have seen a town with 
so many happy faces, and, during my whole stay, I did 
not see anything like a wrangle. The ladies that I was 
permitted to behold, had delicate features, and small, but 
expressive, eyes; many of them would have been thought 
beautiful in your own fastidious city, and the manner 
of arranging the hair seemed to have been studied from 
a Grecian statue, though the locks were a little swelled 
out from the temples as in the Sphinx. 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 231 

They are not so dark even as the Italians; for they 
seldom encounter the direct gaze of the sun, and all 
flowers that bloom in the shade, are pale; yet they 
take some exercise, chiefly in a small cart with low 
wheels, that a servant pushes' before him after the man- 
ner of a wheelbarrow. There are many coaches also 
of the antique European construction, which are drawn 
by horses, or oxen. 

Another device of the ladies to walk forth in the shade 
is a sort of umbrella, in the shape of a bell or an ex- 
tinguisher to a lamp. It has a window in front, and a 
servant walkj ten feet in the rear of his mistress and 
holds it over her head and shoulders from the end of a 
pole; it has a picturesque appearance and the lady 
looks like a butterfly under the petals of a lily. 

A spanking pair of oxen makes a very good team, 
and they show better abreast, than as I have seen them 
in Gloucestershire in a tandem aliquando. In Europe 
the prejudice is in faVor of horses, but in Asia the ass 
is as honorable a beast, and at Japan and the Cape of 
Good Hope the ox is not without estimation. In that 
part of Africa an ox is broke to the saddle, and made 
to curvet like a nag; I have myself seen the King of the 
Hottentots, (and a handsome man he was) riding through 
Cape Town full speed upon a brown ox. 

In describing the festival of the lanterns, I omitted 
one peculiarity, for, according to the strictness of an- 
cient custom, it is not lawful to demand payment, except 
at this feast. It is too good a custom to be confined to 
an island, for once in a year is enough to be dunned 
anywhere. Of all lugubrious days (and just now they 
are doubly dismal,) of all first days of winter or last of 
autumn, of all solemn anniversaries of unfortunate events 
not one is as sorrowful as the last day of grace. The 



232 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

dew drops may glitter on the rose in the morning, 
the breath of summer may come over banks of violets, 
the sun may rise like an orb of glory, but it will seem 
cheerless as it did to the sick Lefevre and his son, when 
it ushers in the last day of grace. 

There is another feast that smacks a little of chival- 
ry, religion, (as in some of our feuds) is the pretext; 
hoc prcelexit nomine culpam, but private animosity is 
the cause. This festival, which is held in honor of the 
god of war, brings into the lists a great many combat- 
ants, who take this method to settle their private quar- 
rels, and, in a country where revenge is virtue, many 
dead bodies must be left upon the field. Ignorant sav- 
ages! that know no better way to get satisfaction for 
injuries received, or inflicted; for we hate those more 
whom we injure, than those who injure us. With ua 
Christians, revenge is as sweet, and is safer to be had than 
in Japan; the general custom here, is not to attack life it- 
self, but that whereon life depends, and which is more 
to our enemies than money was to Shylock. We aim 
our archery at the character and reputation of our foes, 
and as we shoot from an. ambush, the victim writhes, 
while (he archer is unknown; he is invisible as the pesti- 
lence that walks at noon day, and, having inflicted the 
wound, is commonly the first to offer his insulting con- 
dolence to the sufferer. This is often done under the 
white robe of public duty; and a man that has the ran- 
cor of hell in his soul, will immolate one whom he en- 
vies, under the pretence that he is serving the common- 
wealth. 

The salutations of the Japanese are more graceful than 
those of Europe. These people however incline too 
much to ceremony; enough to remind one of Noodle 
and Doodle, on the stage; it is nevertheless, the gen- 
uine politeness, like that we call of the old school, un- 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 233 

like the total apathy and suppression of all feeling that 
constitutes high breeding in England. At London, it 
is vulgar to be moved or surprised at anything, and a 
man of fashion would lose caste to show temper while he 
is bitterly insulting another or to wink at the explosion 
of a powder magazine. 

Cross the channel and you find a different state of 
things, to which it is not possible for an Englishman 
to accommodate himself. For to be a favorite with the 
dames of France, one must have enthusiasm in all things. 
This will cover all defects and without it there is no fa- 
vor in Paris. Americans afe more caressed there than 
the English, because they have never trained them- 
selves to suppress the marks of all emotion as a duty of 
politeness, and because they have also more ardor of 
character than the English. 

That the Japanese are no wranglers may be seen in 
their dictionary. They have no terms of abuse in the 
language and one cannot in words abuse another; un- 
less by a figure of speech. 

In English, we have in controversy the advantage of 
about four thousand words of abuse that were created 
for the system of private warfare that I mentioned 
above; they express every variety of reproach from that 
which is but slightly ridiculous, to that which includes 
an utter destitution of intellect, morals or manners. Au- 
thors stand at the head of our literature, only from their 
skill in the application of these terms, and the invention 
of figures to express the same meaning more circuitous- 
ly, and therefore with more elegance; it follows that 
Junius and Swift, and newspaper writers generally, will 
be the last to be translated into Japanese. 
) 



20* 



234 RECOLECTIONS OF JAPAtf. 



NO. III. 



Dear Sir — Japan is as populous as an old cheese, 
and it is cultivated like a garden. Botanists complain 
of the scarcity of all but the useful and cultivated plants; 
all others are considered weeds, and eradicated as our 
farmers grub up a shrub oak. It would fatten Mr 
Coke of Norfolk (supposing him to be lean) to ride a 
hundred miles in this country ; there is nothing like it 
even about Holkham. There is such a population in 
Japan that little land can lie fallow ; what think you of 
5000 people to the square mile r It is equal to tho 
number in Washington City. 

The inhabitants, however, have various ways of re- 
ducing the census, one of which is to strangle their in- 
fants, when earthquakes have grown so unfrequent that 
there are more mouths than penny loaves, for there are 
no wars, as in Europe, wherein "the surplus vagabonds 
may be expended. How would their wise men marvel 
at our policy and power of multiplying the population, 
especially in Ohio, and States westward ! It would aston- 
ish the political economists of Japan to be told that in 
1787 Ohio had no white people ; that in three years 
more it had three thousand whites ; in ten years there- 
from fortytwo thousand, ; in ten years more two hun- 
dred and thirty thousand, and in five years later four 
hundred thousand. This is wonderful, even here, but 
in other countries it is scarely credible. The scavana 
of Japan say that they have no accurate data for a 
correct census ; and that they might as well try to 
count the birds on the trees as a people with so many 
thousands, without house or home, settlement or parish. 
Jeddo, they say, has ten mil-ims, and I think it can 
have little less ; if this be an invention, it is a lie with 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 235 

a circumstance, for they say that the official returns 
give in the main streets two hundred and eighty thou- 
sand houses, with an average of more than thirty peo- 
ple to a house, and that the very blind amount to thirtysix 
thousand. This gives a town about one hundred and 
forty times as large as Boston. Meaco which is a small 
town in comparison, has, according to Kcempfer, two 
millions six hundred thousand people ; he was a day in 
riding through it, though not a direct line and probably 
not at the top of his speed. 

The Japanese ships are inferior even to the Chinese. 
To diminish the probability of the dreaded foreign inter- 
course, the ships are obliged by law to have such low 
sterns that they could not live in any sea ; they are un- 
safe even in creeping along the shore. The navigation 
about Japan is so difficult, that it is good training for 
seamen ; and the Japanese are excellent sailors, con- 
ducting their miserable craft with great skill among 
rocks, shoals, sandbanks, whirlpools, reefs of rocks, 
coral and waterspouts. These waterspouts are called, in 
Japanese philosophy, sea dragons; and they are really 
thought to be animals with, long tails. Were not the 
6ailors adventurous, there would be no navigation, for 
a voyage often leagues is as perilous as the first voy- 
age of Columbus. 

These people make no use of the flesh of animals that 
are employed in labor, so that good beef is not in repute, 
and in fact, little animal food is eaten; the chief and fa- 
vorite food is rice and vegetables, though the priests eat 
animal food. As there are few cattle, there is neither 
milk, nor butter, nor cheese ; and sheep, goats, and hogs, 
are seldom kept. But if the Japanese care little for beef 
and mutton, they have the true insular taste for fish; they 
eat all that the sea produces, which are the more esteem- 
ed, if they have lain for a week dead upon the shore. 



236 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 

The dress of the people is uniform, and has been so 
for ages, so that a good garment for state occasions may 
serve a great many generations. It is not so here, 
where the fashion of a coat changes before the tailor is 
paid, supposing, that he gives a moderate credit. 
The neck and part of the breast are bare, the robe is 
loose, the sleeves wide, and, in a cold day, the hands 
thrust into them, as in a muff. They seldom wear 
hats, but what are worn are generally of straw, wide 
and tied under the chin, though I have seen a grandee 
in a leather hat, richly gilded like a dome in Moscow. 
When the sun is too hot for the brain, the fan is raised 
for a shade, for a fan is an essential part of the equip- 
ment, and there is a long code of ceremonies for its 
regulation. Soldiers wear it in the girdle by the side 
of their sabres. 

A common soldier is a sort of prince over all but his 
comrades. The sabre is his chief weapon, and it is of 
so excellent a temper that it will cut off a board nail 
without injury to the edge. The guns are clumsy 
matchlocks, but the bow and arrow is a better weapon. 
The soldier wears armor, visor and hemlet ; a dress 
admirably adapted to encumber him, but it has one ad- 
vantage, preventing the possibility of a retreat. The 
soldier is paid, as all are paid, by those who cultivate 
the soil, and he is ungrateful enough to oppress his pay- 
master. The payment is in rice, which is a sortof cir- 
culating medium. The soldier is as much above the 
proper grade as the husbandman is below it; for the latter 
must share the produce about equally with the lords of 
the country. 

' Sic vos non vobisfertis aratra boves.' 

There are a great many monks and religious recluses 
who live in celibacy, perhaps in chastity, and endure 
penance from choice. They seem, (like wise men) to 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. . 237 

distrust their own power of resistance, and therefore 
permit no females to approach their dwellings. I saw 
female devotes, dressed like nuns, affecting an air o* 
modesty that sat gracefully upon them, — but if they 
were indeed modest common fame owes them reparation. 
There is a religous order of the blind, (we have some, 
but of the ' mind's eye, Horatio') which is governed by 
a principal, who has great powers. The religion of Fo 
is gaining followers ; it includes a belief that all men 
and beasts have souls that are immortal — that there is 
a distinction between good and evil, and that bad men 
after death will animate the bodies of some brute, whom 
living they most resembled, be it dog, fox, wolf, or 
hyena. Men, who look into their own hearts and find 
that all is good, put a period to a well spent life the 
sooner to enjoy the reward, but with us I have seldom 
known a good man become his own hangman. 

In a country, whose laws are the will of one man, 
and whose will it must be that his favorites live in splen- 
dor, there are many poor ; and the beggars are a body 
bo large that it seems strange they do not rob. The 
dogs too, as in some villages in New England, are more 
nuiiierous than the people, and they are no less atten- 
tive to strangers than our own curs. I was not long 
since at a town in Middlesex, where, at the confines, I 
was waited upon by a deputation of six dogs, who turn- 
ed me over to seven other bands before all the honors 
were done, and I fairly out of the village. In Japan 
these faithful animals are held in honor ; you will never 
see one kicked by an ungrateful master, or scouring 
away with a tin canister at his tail, for the pleasure of 
a malicious schoolboy. Here, as in Turkey, there are 
dog-hospitals, where an old hound is fed upon soups, 
and in his age he sleeps in the sun, sleek and well fed, 
urging the chase in his dreams and yelping as the prey 
seems within his reach. 



238 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

In our country, a dog is less to be envied ; the pup 
no sooner opens his eyes (which is not done in a day) 
upon this unfeeling world, than his tail is abbreviated, 
and his ears are cut off. If he have a master, of an easy 
and placable temper he is starved, and punished when 
he steals, though what can poor Tray know of meum 
and tuum, when the latter is the form of a piece of meat. 
If the master is severe and stern to view, the dog has 
little to solace him but the old saw, that every one must 
have his day. He must suffer for the ill-humor of his 
master, who, when he is aggrieved by an equal, that he 
dare not oppose, gives vent to his indignation upon his 
dog ; who is, like the safety valve of an engine, an out- 
let for the superabundant ebullition. The poor brute 
feels no anger, but perhaps loves the more, and, with 
such humility and fidelity, that had he but reason, he 
would be a better christian than his master. 

Japan is the paradise of dogs, which is more than can 
be said of New England; the dogs, however, like some 
rich men, are better fed than taught. As they are more 
in number than the men, they could bring an immense 
body into the field; their number, too, is constantly full, 
or increasing, for they are liable to few of the accidents 
that take off their masters. Pestilence passes by and 
touches them not; the earthquake can overtake few so 
light of foot; and, unlike their owners, they have too 
much natural feeling to destroy their own offspring. 
That fabulous malady, hydrophobia, is not known among 
them; but at home, I have known all the curs in a vil- 
lage knocked on the head, because one of their lineage 
retreated with his tail under his legs, from the pitchforks 
of the bumpkins. I myself once gave chace to a spotted 
dog, from morning to a summer noon. Three of us went 
to hunt the mad dog, and in going eight miles, our num- 
bers increased to sixtvfive, rank and file, animated with 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 239 

one soul, but armed with various weapons. The dog 
charged three times, and thrice he dispersed the column; 
when he made the last charge, I was myself in front, and 
seeing no foam at his mouth, and little ferocity in his 
eye, I called to him, he wagged his tail, and surrendered. 
I named him Rescue, and kept him five years, when he 
was hung, on a charge of worrying sheep; for the proof, 
on the court martial, established the fact, that the sheep 
had been worried, and probably by a dog. I have known 
a man hung upon slighter grounds, and what is the hope 
for a cur? 

These dog-hospitals, that I told you of, remind me of 
a sect of philosophers in India, so humane that they not 
only brush away with feathers all insects from their path, 
but so pious and charitable as to leave funds for their 
support. There is, at Benares, a Refuge for Destitute 
Mosquitoes, where the funds are bestowed on certain 
beef-eating fellows, who offer their bare legs and arms, 
three times a day, for bills as large as a small gimblet. 

On the Dorchester flats, the mosquitoes are as large 
and as hungry as in India, but I never knew but one fool 
to feed them with his own blood; a few fishermen had 
kindled a fire to smoke them away, when one made abet 
with another, that he would for five minutes suffer, with- 
out wincing, every insect that would bite, come cut or 
long tail. Strip, was the word, and the sufferer laid 
down as quietly as if he were to die for his creed or 
country. Four minutes and a half had gone, and he lay 
as motionless as the Dying Gladiator; but his comrade 
came behind, like Glenalvon, and touched him on the 
back with a burning coal, when the poor fellow clapped 
his hand on the part, saying, ' I should have won, though, 
but for that d d ganninipper. 1 

There are a great many unlucky days in the Japanese 
calendar, on which they begin no enterprise, and the 



240 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

priests have something to do in consequence of this be- 
lief. They also have possession of a great many warm 
springs, which are always found in volcanic districts, 
and each fountain has the power to wash away a partic- 
ular sin; and who would hot like to wash away his sin3 
without the trouble of amending his heart and his life? 
The consequence is, that there are a great many bathers 
at high prices. There is on a mountain a countless 
number of these priests or bonzes, and they exercise un- 
limited power, and attract half Japan in pilgrimages. 
They have a large scale, of which one end is over an 
abyss, and in this the pilgrim is placed for confession; if 
he does not tell all his faults, or if he is supposed not 
to tell all, the balance is shaken, and he falls to destruc- 
tion. 

The Japanese have universally such a taste for gar- 
dening, that you would think them a nation of garden- 
ers. These gardens are, many of them, scooped out like 
an amphitheatre, descended by steps, and have arti- 
ficial rocks, hills, ponds, and islands. Like the English, 
they follow nature, or rather embellish it, and you will 
see no rectangular walks, or yew trees cut in fanciful 
shapes. Even the poor people, whose possessions are 
but ten rods square, have miniature gardens like those 
described. 

Where the houses are built of wood, and sometimes 
covered with flags, there must be a most orthodox dread 
of fire, and therefore no man in Japan is more honored 
than he that can extinguish one. Of course, arson is 
not a light crime, and the criminal has a touch of the 
lexialionis; he is tied to a stake, and roasted alive. 

In the districts, there is a sort of mutual insurance, 
that is, all the community are responsible for any disor- 
der, as was the case in Saxon times in England. But 
every man has a way to insure himself; and though it 



RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 241 

always fails him, a failure never shakes his confidence. 
That is, every one has a charm or amulet; generally, a 
distorted human figure is placed over the door, when no 
misfortune or disease can be supposed to enter — yet the 
inmates die. 

Short courtships are in fashion at Japan, though chil- 
dren, however, who are plighted by their parents, are 
married when of age. The husband has the power of 
putting away his wife, and without assigning a better 
reason than his own will. This is hardly a practice to 
make tender husbands. 

The grandees allow little freedom to their wives, who 
have but the range of their own apartments. Father 
Charlevoix says that the fidelity and modesty of the la- 
dies are equal to the suspicion of their lords, and thinks 
that the Japanese have the happy art of restraining the 
liberty and retaining the affection of their wives — in 
which the good Father displays as much charity as 
sagacity. 



NO. IV. 

Sir — Jugglers are so common in Japan, that it seems 
that one in fifty of the people practice the black art, 
though this estimate makes a formidable corps of wizards. 
They have a thousand ways to cheat the eyes, and are 
so dexterous that I could not account for their tricks, 
but by supposing assistance from the powers of evil. 
There are a great many young women, proficients in 
these dark studies; and it is a more horrid sight than you 
can imagine, to see them covered, neck, arms, and body, 
21 



242 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 

with hissing snakes, whose heads are protruded as if to 
bite. 

In all useful domestic machinery, the Japanese are 
centuries in our rear, though, according to some econo- 
mists, it might be doing them a mischief to instruct them 
in the mystery of a mill. Their mill is the primitive 
pestle and mortar; the rice is pounded with a sort of 
mallet, and I saw no machinery whatever, though some 
there may have been. But I suppose the fur would rise 
upon your back, were I to speak slightly of all machinery 
to save labor, though, to be frank, I like best the old 
buzzing household wheel. 

Having commended the beauty of the Japanese wo- 
men, though their eyes are somewhat small, you may 
ask if I can praise them for higher qualifications. Of 
countries where travellers are few, many errors must 
exist in the description; and from the accounts of some, 
the ladies of Japan are not distinguished for reserve, or 
even for pretensions of modesty. I have better thoughts 
of them, and would, thirty years ago, have taken a wife 
among them, rather than espouse a young woman of 
Sicily. To tell you the truth, which must go no farther, 
I had inducements in both countries, but did not (intend- 
ing no pun) embrace the opportunity. The women of 
Japan are neat in their persons and dress, and they can- 
not be weak mothers, to instill into their children such 
lessons of courage and fortitude; they never heard of 
Cornelia, but their sons prefer death to shame. 

In no country are baths so universal as in Japan, where 
they are in every private and public house. An inn 
would as much lose its reputation there, to be without a 
bath, as in New England it would suffer in credit with- 
out a bar. There is a moderate drinking, too, in Japan; 
I saw no wine, but there are distilled spirits, and it is not 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 243 

considered very infamous to be intoxicated in the eve- 
ning, though a Christian community should have no par- 
don for the offender. 

There is but one power in the constitution of Japan 
the executive; for this includes the legislative and the 
judiciary. The Emperor's power is easily defined, his 
will is the only law of -Japan, though it is sometimes but 
a doubtful standard of right and wrong; there are grades 
of crime, but no degrees of punishment, the slightest 
offence against the laws, that is, the will of a good prince, 
deserves no less than death, and offences of a lighter 
kind, as arson, parricide, or simple murder, are punished 
with the same severity. A great many offences are 
capital, probably about a hundred and fifty, or about 
half as many as in the code of Britain, for the Emperor 
must have blood! blood! blood! 

The empire is divided into sixtyeight provinces, and 
there is a governor to each, who adopts the mild politi- 
cal maxims of the Emperor. Some of the governors 
come up to Jeddo with a train of fifty thousand people; 
they inspect the construction of roads and canals, and 
the roads, therefore, are excellent. It seems that the 
people, being restricted in their roving tastes from quit- 
ting Japan, gratify themselves by constant motion at 
home; for there is no country where the ways are so 
thronged with travellers. There is much trade from one 
province to another, and more pilgrimages than were in 
England at the time of the Canterbury Tales. A gov- 
ernor goes oh horseback, with two couriers before, cry- 
ing, l make way! make way!' even if no one be in sight; 
two other footmen are attached to the bridle, to restrain 
the horse, and two more to the stirrup, to switch him 
into a curvet. The governor, in the mean while, sits 
like a statue of dignity, looking as intently on the mane 
of his horse, as if it were the fortyseventh proposition in 



244 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

Euclid. They are required to come often to court, to 
give an account of their stewardship; and they go thither, 
like a Bashaw to Constantinople, prepared to share the 
plunder, and purchase immunity for its extortion. If they 
demur to the salvage, or otherwise offend, they are sent 
to the island of Falsisio, on the southern point of the 
empire, from which they never return to describe it. It 
is said to be more barren than St Helena, affording no 
sustenance for a rat; it is surrounded by beetling cliffs, 
and all visiters must be drawn up by ropes. It was the 
very place for Napoleon; a thousand petty insults might 
have been heaped upon the General, and all reproaches 
would have died away before they could reach the ears 
of Europe; but then Sir Hudson Lowe would not have 
occupied in history his enviable place. 

The governor of Nangasaki, who happened to know 
more than his countrymen, sent to Batavia for an hun- 
dred ship-carpenters; not one was to be had, and the 
Dutchmen advised him to send as many of his country- 
men to Holland, to learn its useful arts, but the gov- 
ernor died before he could mature his plans. 

At Meaco, the^ holy city, resides the Diari, whose 
empire is that of public opinion, which has power even 
in Japan. His possessions have been lopped away, like 
those of St. Peter's successors, but such is his influence 
over the minds of the people, that half Japan is his tri- 
butary; and the city of Meaco is his own in fee tail male 
general. 

The Emperor finds it needful to pay homage to the 
Diari, as Napoleon condescended to cultivate the good 
will of the Pope. The religion of the Diari, however, 
is not universal in Japan; it acknowledges one Su- 
preme Being, and a future life. The devotees have 
no images in their temples, but pray in front of a 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 245 

mirror, to remind them that their hearts are open 
to the Deity, as their faces are reflected to them- 
selves. One order of the religious of this creed, is that 
of the Soldiers of the Mountain; they live in caves, and 
subsist upon charity, which, in superstitious countries, 
affords to such a splendid revenue. As they think bodily 
suffering an atonement for sin, penance is their pleasure, 
and they 

' Think to merit heaven, by m?king earth a hell.' 
It is these, or some other monks, that are described as 
putting to sea in crazy barks, making holes in the bot- 
tom, and singing hymns as they sink to felicity. They 
also bury themselves alive, with space enough to pro- 
long their torments, and suffer from choice the penalty 
of a defiled vestal in the Roman commonwealth. In 
their pilgrimages, they choose the roughest roads, and 
are the best pleased where they can find the most flints 
and thorns to lacerate their naked feet, for they have not 
discovered the happy expedient of putting peas in their 
shoes. Having no fear, they are in no danger, for dan- 
ger is the child of fear; and like Macbeth and Ladurlad, 
they bear a charmed life, for they run swiftly along the 
verge of precipices that would turn a common brain. 

From their superior austerity, they assume great 
powers over the pilgrims, for a slight offence suspending 
them over a chasm by the hands, and when the strength 
fails, and the grasp relaxes, the body is dashed to a shape- 
less mass. The pilgrims are required to pray with cer- 
tain formalities; they must rest their mouths upon their 
knees for twenty four hours, which is the length of a 
moderate prayer, and their least motion is punished by a 
blow. 

In some of the temples are huge idols, and one is as 
large as the man of mount, Athos; the Colossus of Rhodes 
21* 



246 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

was but a baby in comparison; his shoulders are five 
fathoms broad, and six men can sit in the palm of his 
hand. 

My recollections of Japan are so desultory, that I have 
already forgotten, in my want of method, what I have 
written before. But I think I have not mentioned the 
Ainos, a simple and primitive race of people, on some of 
the islands. They call themselves men, and as the king 
says, ' in the catalogue,' they may pass for such. These 
Islanders have such beards as would raise envy in a 
Persian prince; and they have ha'r also upon their backs, 
but I tried in vain to get one of the pelts. The females 
are said to be modest, but modesty is thrown away upon 
them; they have other defences, and it is a beautiful 
woman that has the greatest need for modesty. 

The Ainos form an early and instinctive alliance with 
the bears; the cubs are taken young from the mother, 
and suckled by the women. Hence strong attachments 
subsist between the foster brethren with two, and with 
four legs; for the number of legs seems to mark the dif- 
ference between the animals, though sometimes the bear 
walks upright, and the man upon all fours. 

Hunger, however, is stronger than affection, or Com- 
modore Byron would never have eaten his dog; and 
when these household cubs are fattened, they are killed 
and eaten. The family mourns over the death of a fa- 
vourite, but find some consolation in picking his bones; 
yet they never read in Rochefoucault, that there is some- 
thing that does not displease us, in the misfortunes of 
our best friends; though perhaps he meant, when the 
loss of them is followed by an inheritance. 

They live at Yesso, a sort of Japanese Arcadia, and 
are not as neat as the Japanese, nor yet as filthy a3 
the pastoral people I have elsewhere seen, though they 
are never known to wash themselves. 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 247 

The men have several wives, commonly one in the 
different places to which their business calls them; they 
have a just law, that inflicts a severe punishment on adul- 
tery, yet it makes a discrimination to favor the tempted. 
If a woman is as shameless as the wife of Potiphar, and 
gives her rings to a man, this pledge secures him from 
the justice of t'.ie law, and the vengeance of the husband. 

The Ainos have some traffic with the Kurile Islands, 
the same that were discovered and described, with some 
exaggerations, by Benyoski. You may read his adven- 
tures, which have a touch of romance, in two volumes; 
he was exiled to Siberia, from whence, with others, he 
escaped by seizing a ship; he had won the affections of 
the governor's daughter, who, if I remember well, went 
away with him, though he had a wife at home. All these 
things are embellished in a drama of Kotzebue, after his 
manner, in the Stranger, 

' With his sentimentalibus, lachrymje, roar'em.' 

The moral of each play is equally good, covering 
crime with passionate thought and seductive language. 
Benyoski was a man of a restless mind and afterwards 
planted a colony in the isle of France, where he was 
killed; saving my liability to forget. 

There are few streams in Japan that can be called 
rivers, in the American phrase, for here a course of a 
thousand miles is required to constitute a river, yet the 
streams of Japan, though small, are rapid and clear. 
The lakes are in the same proportion, though there is 
one sheet of water more than forty leagues in length; 
the shores are lined with three thousand temples, which 
make about one temple to every superstition. 

The trees of Europe that I saw were the pine, and a 
great many noble willows; the fruits were oranges, figs, 
plums, and pears. The beach is fringed with cocoa 



248 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 

trees and fan palms; and here you may see meadows 
of mimosas, in which the plant will shrink from your 
touch, and leave a clear space to walk in. 

There are few wild animals in any of the Japanese 
islands; the largest are wolves, and these not very fe- 
rocious, yet the inhabitants think that they are the em- 
bodied spirits of evil, and so call them. 

Kcempfer praises the justice of the Japanese laws, 
or magistrates, far above that of Europe, where it is to 
be feared he had tasted a suit at law. But the infre- 
quency of crime is produced by tremendous penalties 
upon the culprit, his family and his neighbourhood. In 
disputes, the parties appear personally before the judge 
and tell their own story without the intervention of a law- 
yer, or the aid of special pleading. The Japanese laws 
like all others, act more upon the fears than the hopes 
of the people, denouncing penalties to evil doers, rather 
than promising rewards to those that do well. But in free 
countries there is a counterbalance, and though the 
laws do not offer premiums to virtue, yet the greatest 
reward is sure to follow good conduct in wealth, repu- 
tation and office; this is universally true in our own 
pleasant land, where there is not a single rogue in of- 
fice, nor do I take it on myself to say that any has been 
turned out. 



NO. V. 



Dear Sir — This prosing has been so long continued, 
that it has become to me a pleasure whatever it may be 
to the gentle readers. 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 249 

It is very easy to write reminiscences, if you require 
no other arrangement than the course in which the facts 
occur to memory; though this is not a very philosophi- 
cal connection, or the order followed in the exact scien- 
ces. The epistolary style is also very favorable to in- 
dolent writers, and for all writei's; for it includes all 
styles, from bald disjointed chat to the most polished 
and sonorous periods. 

Did I tell you how they sleep in Japan ? Even as 
you and I bivouacked near the White Mountains; on 
the floor. A coverlid, (or as I heard a senator call it, a 
kiverlid) stuffed like one of our comforters, is spread 
upon the plank, and a billet of wood, with a place cut 
for the head, stands substitute for a pillow; so that in 
Japan it would not do to throw pillows as girls do at a 
boarding school. The luxurious have a small cushion, 
on the timber, but this is rare. These people would 
make as good soldiers as the Highlanders; you remem- 
ber the old chieftain sleeping with his clan on the hill 
side, one of which rolled up a baU of snow whereon to 
lay his head. ' Out upon it!' said Lochiel, givinq it a 
kick, ' are you so effeminate as to need a pillow?' 

The Japanese are equally hardy in bearing the cold, 
though the severe weather is but of brief duration. But 
they have no such snug quarters as a chimney corner, 
and, though they might do battle for their altars, very 
few of them could die for their hearths. In some houses, 
however, there is a mound raised in the middle of 
an apartment, like a blacksmith's forge, whereon they 
make a fire, the smoke of which ascends through a hole 
in the roof. 

The houses in Japan are not so tastefully furnished as 
those of Europe, and the beautiful varnished tables and 
boxes that are so much admired are found rather in their 
cabinets than parlors. The porcelain is good, but infe- 



250 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAW. 

rior to the Chinese, and the paintings are brilliant and 
gaudy. The Japanese are fond of show, and what fur- 
niture they have seems made rather for sight than ser- 
vice, more as ornaments than utensils. 

These islanders seem to have the elements of a great 
character; they have steadiness of purpose, contempt of 
death, and, what is more rare, of pain. They have in- 
genuity in the arts, and aptitude to learn foreign lan- 
guages. They seem to be an odd mixture of the Italian 
and the Russian. The passion of revenge is with them 
a tornado that sweeps away every obstacle in its course; 
when rendered desperate, they are not, like the Javan- 
ese, satisfied with a general massacre, of running ' a- 
muck; ' but they pursue their enemy with the pertinac- 
ity of a beagle. If they fail to compass their revenge, 
(and it is no slight obstacle that will discourage them) 
they rip open themselves rather than live in the torments 
of ungratified rage. Formerly, family feuds descended 
with the family name, but I did not learn that debts of 
gratitude were ever thus bequeathed; the heir would 
not so readily pay the legacies. The benefits that a man 
receives die with him, and often he survives his own 
memory of them; he tries to forget what it is painful to 
remember, who saved his life, or loaded him with fa- 
vors, while he ' remembers who owes him money or gave 
the last kick on the shins,' and the memory of an insult, 
en injury, a word, a look, is hoarded up for revenge. 
To conclude, my hearers, (for I have got into a sermon 
without a text) if you would practice a fashionable and 
( gentlemanly vice,' take up with ingratitude. Byron 
gave the preference to avarice, but I can show you a 
great many men on 'Change and in church, proficients in 
both. 

I found at Nangasaki several of the natives, who 
were shrewd and intelligent, and I explained to them 



RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 251 

the principles of a republic, but they were slow to com- 
prehend how we could get along without an emperor. 
I told them that we were all equal and free, (though it 
stuck a little in my throat,) that the rulers were the ser- 
vants of the people, who were the sovereigns, and that 
all of them obeyed laws of their own choice. These 
were startling assertions, and produced skilful cross 
questions, forcing me to admit that, in the republic, at 
Boston the head of it, at Worcester its heart, and at 
Northampton its back-bone, a rich man may make a 
poor one, his serf, his slave, and his captive. Of the 
poor, the most to be pitied are those who have once 
been rich, and their numbers have of late frightfully in- 
creased. They must always have out paper enough, 
(such is the phrase) for a rich rogue to buy up at a dol- 
lar a hundred, and thus he may feed his prisoner upon 
the vapor of a dungeon, he may destroy his health, and 
inflict upon him moral degradation; he may crush him 
where he is most sensitive, in his honor, his family and 
affections, till death removes him beyond the humane 
operation of the laws. 

Thus sir have I told you all that I know of Japan, and 
something more. I have written four times as much as 
I intended, and yet could write as much more, but 
enough has been done to entitle me to reward, and I 
look to the merchants for a service of plate, though it 
should be pewter, or a medal, if only of leather. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 



NO. I. , 

Sir — Though I am not of that class of travellers, 
who, (as the African said) ' take big walk, make big 
book,' yet something I have seen which I am encourag- 
ed to describe by your praise of the sketches of the 
Boston Merchant, whom I hold in slight esteem', for he 
was nothing out of Italy, and not much there; I also 
have been there, but the eternal city, tantum vidi, for 
what could I investigate in three days; therefore my 
recollections of Rome, are like the memory of a dream, 
or like a lake in a storm, reflecting only broken images 
of grandeur. 

It is known to you that I am not only a scholar, but 
an instructer; for the village school has been so long 
under my administration, that the birch I planted at the 
corner has become a goodly tree. 

When I was a young man (which was not in this 
century) I was a year in Canton, though as I was gen- 
erally moored in the river, I saw less of the land than 
of the people, and shall therefore not so much describe 
China as the Chinese. But 'Recollections' you 



RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 253 

know, Sir, come as they will, and not as the reminiscent 
may desire, which I offer, to palliate my want of method, 
as you will see that I often connect things together by 
very remote resemblances. 

In North America there is such a connexion between 
the sciences arid arts, that it would excite your won- 
der to see in China, the arts so high and the sciences 
bo low; yet their arts are at a stand, and have not for 
cenlunes advanced. The Chinese have known the 
qualities of the magnet, the invention of printing, 
and of gunpowder, longer, than the .Europeans, yet their 
compass is but a blind guide, their types are blocks of 
wood, and their matchlocks are as perilous at the breech 
as at the muzzle. 

Their g eatest monuments are more creditable to 
their industry than their skill, and the great wall was 
not founded on the reasoning of Romulus. It was the 
labor of cowardice, inviting an attack because display- 
ing fear. Yet it is a greater work than your Mill Dam, 
for it runs over mountain and valley as far as from Bos- 
ton to New Orleans; but it is shorter than the grand 
canal from Canton to Pekin. 

An honest man soon becomes suspicious in China, 
where 'e finds enough to excite sarcasm and misanthro- 
py. The Chinese have no sincerity, and therefore no 
confidence, for they look into themselves to discover the 
character of others. 'I hey believe in magic but not in 
virtue, for they buy the favor of wizards and distmast 
the honesty of all men. ' 

Their government is admirably well adapted to make 
them hypocrites and knaves; it is a representative des- 
potism, where you may see ' the image of authority,* 
better than in a cur barking at a beggar. Every func- 
tionary represents in his circle the power of the Empe- 
ror, and his lightest way of enforcing it is by the bamboo, 



254 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

Servility and insolence are correlative, and you will no- 
where else find power so lordly and obedience so humble 
as in China. 

The press is prolific, but such is the system of review- 
ing that I should think it mercy to fall into the hands of 
Mr Walsh. An ill-starred author dared, like Webster, 
to meddle with the great dictionary of the nation, and 
to insert the little, or family names of Emperor, and of 
Kong-fut-see. The critics in China, have high juris- 
diction, and adjudged the criminal guilty of treason, 
when it was only murder of the Emperor's Chinese; but 
he was sentenced to be cut in pieces, and to have his 
children put to death. But the Emperor was clement, 
and commuted the punishment to cutting off the offen- 
der's head, and his children were reprieved for the great 
autumnal execution. This is worse than it is with us 
in the republic of letters, where, though the author is 
sometimes cut up, his relatives always escape the knife. 

You are to remember that in China the only noble 
family by inheritance, is that of Confucius, or Kong- 
fut-see; he has been dead twenty centuries, bjt those 
of his lineage are called ' Nephews of the Great Man.' 

The Chinese all smoke, though good, tobacco is too 
dear to be used unmixed; it is blended with opium, 
which it is penal to take, yet every one abuses and smokes 
it. There are in Canton societies for the suppression 
of opium eating; the viceroy is the president, and he 
made a pathetic appeal to his constituents to give up 
so perilous a practice, though he takes his own opium 
as regularly as a Virginian his julep. 

The Chinese are free from some prejudices, touching 
food, that yet exist in other countries; the beef of the 
horse is preferred to that of the cow, and their game is 
what we call vermin; rats are fattened for epicures and 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 255 

a pheasant is sold at the same price with a cat. Pork, 
however, is the general meat, and the hams are excel- 
lent; but in this country of the imitative arts, ham is 
counterfeited, and many a foreigner has bought a gam- 
mon from which he could slice nothing but chips; nut- 
megs, however, are so cheap that they are seldom imi- 
tated. 

Beef is a prohibited meat, but I cannot now tell 
wherefore it is not free; when sold in the streets, it is 
hawked as mutton, though the purchaser knows what 
he buys. It is only change of name and no one is de- 
ceived any more than in dining on a rabbit in Spain, 
where a coney is always a cat. 

The dog butchers have a brisk trade, but when they 
stir abroad the whole canine commonwealth barks at 
their heels, and when one of their fraternity is dragged 
to the shambles, the others attempt a rescue. A pup 
of six weeks makes a delicate roast, and has a peculiar 
flavor, something between the taste of a kid and of an 
opossum. At first, my regard for poor Tray at home, 
rendered me indifferent to such dainties, but I soon 
overcome this prejudice by reflecting that I must have 
eaten dog sausages from the Boston market. In Ame- 
rica, venerable prejudices stand between our teeth and 
excellent food — for, with us, who eats shark's fins, bear's 
claws smoked, or bird's nests boiled. 

In the way of food, nothing comes amiss to a Chinese, 
for his appetite is as accommodating as a Hottentot's. 
A Frenchman keeps a rabbit till it has acquired a flavor, 
and a Chinese does not scorn to eat pig or poultry 
that has floated for weeks in the river. 

But the great article of food is rice, which is boiled, 
and eaten with a chop-stick and porcelain spoon. In 
^•ice countries, the four pronged fork would be more 



256 , RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

useful than with us, for. we use it from affectation, and 
to imitate the French. French cooks delight in cut 
and compound dishes, without joint or substance, wherein 
this fork is an excellent feeder; but the Turk and Per- 
sian eat in the primitive, justifying the proverb, that 
settles the relative antiquity of forks and fingers. 

The Chinese have a compound countenance ' nose 
of Turk, and Tartar's lips.' Yet, although the Tartar 
race holds the empire of China, it has failed to dissemi- 
nate its own unmixed features. China was conquered 
by that warlike people, and as the brave always find 
favor with the fair, the Chinese ladies were courted af- 
ter the manner of the Sabine. The annals relate that 
in those days of glory and profusion, two dollars would 
buy a wife, and a sack to carry her in; so that rating 
the lady as nothing, the purchaser paid but double for 
his bag. 

The Chinese take great delight in what they call mu- 
sic, though they are little pleased with the strains of the 
Eolian harp. But they have the tom-tom or the gong, 
producing an indescribable combination of horrid sounds. 
Their music is prized according to its loudness; I can 
hardly give, you a conception of it from description, but 
I could select performers that would make music like a 
Chinese baud, viz., ten jackasses braying, five brazier's 
pounding on the copper boiler of a steam boat, thirty 
bag-pipers, and a sexton to pull a cracked bell. 

But there is in every man's mind something that re- 
sponds to the touch of his national music, be it bagpipe 
or banjo, and a national tune is a compression into the 
smallest compass, of everything that binds us to our 
country, as the legends of the nursery, and the songs 
of the festival. I have heard a Dundee sailor in a 
moonlight calm off Java head, when the air was filled 
with the odour of flowers, sing ' Should auld acquaint- 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 257 

ance be forgot,' in such a manner as to draw the crews 
of the whole fleet on deck, and their souls out of their 
bodies; but when the same sailor sung another song, 
without national interest, no one cared to listen. 

The tragic muse, has not in China, a very reputable 
train of votaiies; the companies of actors have but five 
or six persons, so that one man ' plays many parts,' and 
boys perform the characters of females. They are, of 
course, strollers, that strut and fret their little hour, in 
any coign of vantage or tap-room corner, where they 
can hang a curtain. Centuries are embraced in the 
time of one play — and the same liberal arrangement is 
made with regard to space. They have some shifts 
equal to Bottom's moonshine and wall; if a char- 
acter is supposed to take a journey, he runs round 
the stage cracking his whip, and stops when the specta- 
tors may imagine him arrived. 

These strollers are but one class of vagabonds, for 
China is half peopled with what the statute calls ' rogues 
found loitering,' ' valiant beggars,' fire eaters, bonzes, 
and jugglers. The jugglers perform surprising feats, 
which I am inclined to inscribe to diabolical aid; they 
will plant you a mango twig in the ground, moisten it 
with blood, and in a few minutes, under their incanta- 
tions the twig becomes a tree, covered with flowers or 
bending with fruit. I have not seen such rapid vegeta- 
tion even in Ohio. Their feats of balancing seem to 
defy the principle of gravitation; I should suppose that 
a bird could hardly perch where I have seen a dance. 
Another of their performances is to have a ribbon a 
hundred feet long attached like a lash to a twelve inch 
rod, which they so whisk about that the ribbon is never 
tangled, and yet is- always in the air; so perfectly can 
they do this, that while the lash is floating in the air, it 
describes many fanciful and regular figures. 
22* • 



258 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA 

The mountebanks of the east are renowned for their 
skill in poising. They will spin round plates on their 
fingers or on sticks, as if they were wheels with axles. 
I have seen one of these magi, fasten three sticks as 
pivots to each boot, and then on six other sticks he 
would spin like whirligigs as many plates, which, while 
spinning, he transferred to the sticks in his boots, where 
they continued still to spin. The operator then set in 
motion three other plates in his hand, so that he had 
nine going at once, Puppet shows are more common 
at Canton than at Naples, but Punch has more wit in 
Italy. The puppets in China are under the inspection 
of the police, which is vigilant lest they utter anything 
against the paternal government. ' At Rome they have 
more freedom, and form the only means by which a 
satire maybe aimed at the rulers, or follies of the great. 
Puppets in China are the amusement of all classes, and 
indicate the refinement of the public taste. 

The dress of some of the countrymen about Canton, 
is principally a cloak. of rice straw, so that the. peasant 
walks about under a thatched roof. They sleep upon 
mats, and the people generally have no better beds. 

The Chinese children have a great reverence for the 
schoolmaster, and seldom incur his displeasure. The 
booksellers have a vast variety of books for juvenile 
scholars, who, in a language so intricate and volumin- 
ous, receive every possible aid. If you have never ar- 
rived at the distinction of keeping a school, you can 
hardly estimate the public gratitude that should follow 
those who simplify the process of education. I would 
acknowledge a pedagogue's debt to the compiler of the 
National Reader, which I once heard called a national 
bulwark. Some grave and wise man rated the influence 
of the ballads in a language above that of the laws; 
but, Sir, the school-books have a greater agency than 
either, in forming character. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 259 

It is a sight to make my green spectacles glisten to 
look at the shelves of Munroe and Francis. They 
have changed the whole system of juvenile reading; 
Blue Beard and Tom Thumb, have abdicated their 
high places in favor of better people, and a child, while 
he seeks only amusement, may now learn history and 
the sciences, and avoid the silly tales that composed my 
own early library, and which haunt the memory for evil, 
like stories of ghosts and spectres. If the children of 
the commonwealth were to erect a monument to their 
greatest benefactors, you would find it inscribed to our 
friends at the corner of Water street; this may seem a 
strong assertion, but every schoolmaster or parent, that 
educates his own children, knows it to be but faint 
praise. You, I think, deserve well of your country, 
being the father of eight sons; when the season of 
Christmas presents comes, let them not make a profitless 
investment of half a dollar in a whistle, or statues of 
men and horses in sugar, but purchase a book, that if 
they read but once and throw it by, will yet leave a 
lasting impression on their minds. This is my course 
with the young Doolittles, who have already a miniature 
library of fifty volumes, and whose greatest treat it is 
to visit the bookstore of the publishers. 

ERASMUS DOOLITTLE. 



NO. II. 

Sir — The first impulse of an American, when he sees 
for the first time a Chinese, is to laugh at bins. His 
dress, if judged by our standard, is ridiculous, and in a 
Mandarin, a stately gravity sets it off for double derision. 



260 RECOLLETTIONS OF CHINA. 

«His trowsers are a couple of meal bags, reaching just 
below the knee, his shoes are huge machines, turned up 
at the toe, his cap is fantastic, and his head is shaven 
except on the crown, whence there hangs down a tuft of 
hair as long as a spaniel's tail. This appendage is one 
of honor, and cherished with care; for a long streamer 
at Canton is as much a distinction as a beard that covers 
the girdle at Ispahan. As the Emperor of Persia hag 
the best beard in his dominions, so he of China has the 
longest tail, and no Mandarin presumes to rival, by half 
an ell, that of the Emperor. 

When I was at Canton, the Majesty of China was a 
younger son of old Kien Long, so well known at the 
time of the embassies. Kien Long had rather more than 
common sense, which, for an Emperor, was prodigious; 
like old King Cole, he had a fondness for the bowl, and 
actually composed an ode on Tea; but like you and me 
he had his failings, though he was as good a man as some 
who think themselves better. Like the monarch of 
Britain, he could not resist ' the light of a dark- eye in 
woman;' he therefore had some domestic troubles, for hi3 
Empress hung herself for jealousy, and his son died of an 
imperial kick, for wearing mourning for his mother. 
But Kien Long was as good as other kings, and abdi- 
cated in favor of his fifteenth son, after which his life was 
short, for a deposed or abdicating prince seldom survives 
his power. The Emperor of China, like Augustus, 
covers his power with specious names; his government 
is supposed to be paternal, and, like Charles II, he is 
called the father of his people. lie is also called the 
father, and sometimes the mother, of his country, which 
is as bold a figure as ' Father of Chemistry, and Brother 
of the Earl of Cork.' He is accountable for his actions 
to no created being, and his paternal relation gives him 
the right of chastisement. He inflicts death for disobe- 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 261 

dienco, and minor penalties for less enormous crimes; 
China is his farm, and his subjects are tenants by suffer- 
ance, paying rents in kind. On the north his farm is 
enclosed by a stone wall, and, as Johnson said, it is an 
honorable distinction to be grandson to a man who has 
seen that wall. In so large a family as the Chinese 
Empire, the brethren sometimes fall out, but this hap- 
pens in smaller circles, farther west. 

The great man, once in the year, condescends to turn 
a furrow with his own hand. This is at the Feast of 
Agriculture, a kind of cattle show, held in the spring. 
The Emperor is, however, as much above the Manda- 
rins, as they are elevated above the rest of the people. 
They speak to him on their knees, prostrate themselves 
nine times before him, and kneel to his chair and his 
robes. JMenare said to.be under the government of the 
cudgel in Russia; in China, they are governed by the 
bamboo-. Blows are too common to be disgraceful, and 
are a sort of penalty that all the subjects may suffer. 
The bamboo offers a very simple method of obtaining 
evidence, for if a witness fails to testify as he is desired, the 
testimony is flogged out of him; while in our courts, he is 
only screived. The blows make him conformable, but 
when the witness is flogged, the accused is in danger. 

The lesser punishments are inflicted under the inspec- 
tion of the judge, which is, no doubt, gratifying, when 
the judge is the complainant. The culprit sometimes 
procures a substitute, which may be had for a round 
sum, except in capital cases; the executioner, too, is 
willing to "deal at fair prices, and for a moderate com- 
pensation, he will strike lightly, and somewhat aside. 
This, however, is a great risk to run for benevolence, 
for if detected, he would suffer- twice what he remits, in 
his own person. 



262 RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 

Justice, such as it is, is administered gratis in China; 
and it is some comfort to the Chinese, among all their 
grievances, that they are free from lawyers. No offence 
is punished with less than five lashes, and fifty are often 
given. The manner of flogging is this: the great man 
has three attendants, the culprit is prostrate on his belly, 
one attendant sits astride on his shoulder to keep him 
down, another draws his legs out by a cord around his 
heels, and a third applies the bamboo. The sufferer 
hoards no malice, but retires like one of my scholars after 
1 correction,' with increased veneration for his master. 

There is an instrument in common use, in the nature 
of a moveable pillory, but I have forgotten the name; 
though if I had worn it, I might have remembered it 
longer. It is a wide board like a table, opening to en- 
close the neck, and on this is inscribed the offender's 
demerits, for the amusement of passengers. Like Fal- 
staff, he cannot see his own knees, nor can he put his 
hand to his mouth; for in compass, this poke is equal to 
the ruff in the time of Queen Elizabeth; he is fed by 
some compassionate and congenial soul, whose own 
manner of life gives a prospective chance that he may 
require, in time, the same good office. 

A Chinese soldier has little resemblance to Mars. 
He is encumbered with heavy arms, the most effective 
of which, at a distance, is the bow and arrow; for his 
matchlock is so clumsy, that when discharged, it requires 
an iron rest. The soldiers have among their equipments 
umbrellas, and fans, and smelling bottles for canteens; 
they are sometimes dressed in stripes, like a tiger, and 
have two horns on the head piece, which, with a hideous 
face carved on the shield, is enough to alarm a child 
who sees it for the first time. Their system of war is 
the defensive, and they feel less security in a field than 
in a garrison. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 263 

But this would be no disparagement, if they would fight 
behind an entrenchment; the best of our own battles have 
been won in breastworks, and it is no disgrace to any 
General to cover with the enemy's bodies the ground 
before his line of cotton bags. 

The Chinese, if they do not much reflect upon a fu- 
ture state, have yet a great desire to be buried in a 
good coffin; and in some, this amounts to such a pas- 
sion, that their life passes, like a silk worm's, in the pre- 
paration of something fine to cover themselves when 
they are dead. They have also a careful eye to the cof- 
fin of a friend, and a son will sell himself to slavery to 
buy a good one for his father; whom perhaps he neg- 
lected while alive, as in western countries we raise mon- 
uments to genius, when it is dead, that we suffered to 
languish in want while it lived. Where the coffin is 
splendid, the funeral is, of course, magnificent; and if a 
family is unable to bury its dead in a suitable, that is, in 
a sumptuous manner, the bodies are kept sealed and 
glazed in the coffin, until more favorable times, it may 
be for twenty years. 

In a country where death is so much honored, there 
must be a code of funeral ceremonies. The first part of 
a funeral is somewhat like an Irish burial, and consists 
in howling, in which all the mourners and friends are 
expected to bear a part; and after a few howls, come re- 
freshments and tea. The funeral procession is led by 
music, and has banners, streamers, and images. The 
eldest son walks with a stick, as if to intimate that he is 
overcome with grief. The suits of mourning are worn 
twentyseven months, and the time was formerly longer. 
Their dead are buried in places that do more credit to 
the living than our sombre grave yards; it is an amiable 
weakness in the survivors, to suppose that their deceased 
friends may be gratified with a tomb in a pleasant spot — 



264 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

some airy hill, shaded with trees, where they themselves 
may linger to muse and commune in spirit with the de- 
parted. When a friend is dead, it strikes upon our 
hearts to remember how we misprized him, and how ill 
we requited his kindness; we forget his failings before 
we have covered him with earth, and remember only 
what is amiable. We recall the thousand times that he 
preferred our happiness to his own, and our harsh re- 
turn for what was so kindly meant; and though he is 
beyond the reach of our vain regret and late remorse, 
it is some relief to a wounded spirit, to lay him in a 
shaded spot, and ' manibus plenh ' to scatter flowers upon 
his grave. Excuse me for this digression, but I feel 
what I write; I am myself lacerated by this vain regret, 
and late remorse, and would give ten years of life that I 
might recall from death, for a single day, a friend who 
never knew how much I loved him, if he judged me with 
half the severity with which I now condemn myself. 
He lies in the deep sea, where flowers cannot be scat- 
tered or inscriptions graven, and I have no monument 
for him but these lines of self-reproach, that I have writ- 
ten in sorrow, and you will read with indifference. 

On the death of the Emperor's mother, there was an 
edict, bearing heavily upon the barbers, that, for a hun- 
dred days, no one should be shaved, and another that 
fell like a bolt upon lovers, that none should be married. 
One of the missionaries remarked, that it was wonder- 
ful, during the one hundred days of mourning, to see the 
decorum of the people; in the streets, they conversed 
but in whispers, for the whole term there was no 
wrangling or altercation, and a decent gravity was upon 
every face, as if all sympathized with the affliction of the 
Emperor. The ceremonial of the funeral was described 
in twentyfour volumes, and the apartment, where the 
body lay in state, was called the Hall of Nine Prayers 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 265 

and Three Great Affairs. The Hall of Ancestors is a 
large apartment, common to all of the same family ; and 
there they meet at certain seasons, without distinction of 
rank, except that the oldest take precedence. The 
names of the dead are recorded upon the wall, with the 
usual lapidary allowance of virtues. The congregation 
sometimes amounts to ten thousand*, who are fed at the 
expense of the richest in the family; it is a good cus- 
tom, and if it were introduced here, fewer of us would 
forget poor uncles and cousins. Why, Sir, upon my ve- 
racity, I myself know a man who denied his own grand- 
father. 

There is another good festival of the Chinese, held in 
April, when they go to the tombs of their ancestors and 
eradicate the weeds that have sprung up around them., 

This reverence for the dead is a consequence of the 
peculiar state of the paternal relation in China. If filial 
piety in China, is less a feeling than a political institu- 
tion; still, it is inculcated so early, and enforced by such 
penalties, that there are few undutiful sons, and when 
a child feels the irksomeness of the yoke, he comforts 
himself with the thought, that he shall hereafter have 
to himself the same deference. 

The obedience of a child to his father is absolute and 
unconditional, and if it be morally possible, the father 
has the civil right to inflict the punishment of death. 
Monuments have been erected to children who have 
distinguished themselves by filial tenderness and respect, 
and half the books in China, are but records of such 
dutiful actions. Children are under the same useful 
restraint that I have imposed upon my scholars; a son 
must ask his father's permission to go out, and salute 
him on his return; and to whatever the father enjoins, 
the son can make but three remonstrances — but this is 
a greater latitude than I myself allow. To speak disre- 
23 ' 



266 



RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA, 



spectfully of a parent, or grandparent, is death by stran- 
gling, and to strike them, is death by beheading. 

By a political fiction, the Emperor assumes that he 
is the father of his subjects, and exerts in his political 
capacity, all that is conceded to the paternal relation. 
This is a lever of immense power, and though he abuses 
the paternal relation, the filial is seldom interrupted. 

Your own calling, Mr Editor, is neither safe nor 
common in China; for there are a great many constructive 
offences in publications, and to write anything remotely 
against the government, is death to the editor, the 
printer, the paper maker, and the carrier. What a 
massacre there would be, if such a law were to be exe- 
cuted tomorrow, in Boston. The only independent 
editor in China, is the Emperor, who superintends the 
Pekin Gazette, a i respectable Daily. ' The articles are 
in the usual imperial style, and as true as the bulletins 
of a defeated general. The Almanac is also a court 
publication, filled with astrology and predictions, and 
enjoins industry to the people, that they may fill the gra- 
naries of their father the Emperor. Kien Long, who 
was something of a pedant, ordered a pocket edition of 
the best authors, but the publication was dropped before 
it reached the hundred and seventy thousandth volume. 
Literature is the only read to preferment in Chinaj 
though it takes a contrary direction with us, where igno- 
rance often has the advantage. 

I think yon are fond of an eel pie; what think you of 
a viper broth? It is very palatable and nourishing, but 
rather inflammatory. The viper sellers go about with a 
bamboo over the shoulder, from which is dependant two 
vessels, one holding the broth, and the other the reptiles 
alive. You may see snakes exposed for sale in China 
as often as a codfish in Boston, and on the lid of the 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 267 

vessel is written the contents with (as on all sign boards) 
the words ' no cheating here,' though this denial of what 
is not charged, looks less like innocence than guilt. 
These snake-butchers are very expert in their calling; 
when they find an adder asleep, they seize him by the 
back of the head, and with a pair of tweezers take out 
his fangs, before he is fairly awake. 

The Chinese calendar has prognostications of weather, 
and points out the lucky and disastrous days for serious 
enterprises, such as marriages and lotteries, for the peo- 
ple have a great reverence for the stars, which they 
think regulate the events of the world. They divide the 
zodiac into twelve signs — the Mouse, the Cow, the 
Tiger, the Hare, the Dragon, the Serpent, the Horse, 
the Sheep, the Monkey, the Hen, the Dog, and the 
Bear. 

I would have sent a longer letter, but for the visit of 
an uninvited guest. What is your method with such ? 
I once had a neighbour who called upon me daily — I 
heated my stove red hot, and tried to burn him out, but 
he stood fire like a salamander^ next, I essayed smoke, 
which he bore like a badger; at last, I lent him five dol- 
lars, and have not seen him since. 



NO. III. 



Sir — Some of the penances that the bonzes in China 
inflict upon themselves, are as strange and wild as our 
own fancies under the incubus. They do not, from a 
spirit of devotion, run into the torturing self-sacrifices 
of the Hindoos, but seem willing to save both soul and 



268 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 



body, or rather to make use of the means of saving the 
soul for the support of the body. Hence, a devotee, who 
has imposed it upon himself to wear a heavy chain about 
his neck, asks charity of the devout, who sacrifice less to 
religion. I have seen a short fat bonze, saddled and bri- 
dled to crawl on all-fours, thirty leagues, and as his tuft of 
hair was conducted under the saddle and hung down by 
the' crupper, he made a tolerable representation of an 
ass. He thought it needful to the success of his plan 
to go through the usual motions of a donkey, and he 
would curvet, kick and bray with surprising fidelity. It 
would have delighted Monboddo to see that bonze. 
■ The city of Canton lies so low, .that from no point, to 
which foreigners can penetrate, is there an extensive 
view of it. The river is wide above the Boca Tigre, 
and the water swarms with boats of every size. There 
may be about twenty of these immense junks of twelve 
hundred tons, but there are countless fleets of boats of 
fifty tons; families occupy them, whose home is, on the 
water, and who, in half a life, have seldom slept on ter- 
ra firma. There is a long oar, at the stern, moveable 
on a pin, and the boat is skulled by four or five sailors. 
The oar strikes the water like a fish's tail. The streets 
are filled with people, and, when seen for the first time, 
it is a ludicrous sight to see so many close-shaven heads 
without covering; you look down upon them as on the 
closely-packed audience at a theatre. I have some- 
times seen one Chinese running away from another, and 
it was too much to see with gravity, for their tails were 
streaming out horizontally a yard and a half. 

Where the head is shaven, the barbers have a double 
advantage, for a Chinese gentleman must keep his head 
very smooth, though the common people hardly shave 
once in a week. The heads, in a crowd look like a 
collection of large turnips and offer excellent specimens 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA, 269 

for the study of phrenology. The shampooing is a 
separate job with the barbers, and has an additional 
price. It consists in cleaning out the ear with a small 
spoon, and introducing some very soft brushes. 

The Chinese form their written characters very nice- 
ly; they write with a hair pencil, in lines from top to 
bottom, beginning at the right hand corner of a page, 
and this is peculiar to China and Japan. In all memo- 
rials to Mandarins, but more especially to the Emperor, 
the greatest nicety is required, both in the expression 
and characters. There are particular words appropria- 
ted to different ranks, and no words must occur twice in 
the same memorial; to write a proper memorial in Chi- 
na is therefore as difficult as to draw a special plea in 
more favored countries. But good penmen will write 
with wonderful rapidity, and they seem to write as fast 
as they can think. Would, Sir, that I could do it; you 
would have better c recollections,' for when I happen to 
have a good thought it escapes before I can get it out. 

The Chinese can calculate eclipses. These are cal- 
culated for the capital of every province in the empire; 
and the mandarins of the provinces are therefore in 
readiness for the eclipse at the very moment when it is 
to happen. When the obscuration begins, the people 
(like the Neapolitans in a snow storm) fall ontheir knees, 
amid a horrid noise of gongs and other soft instruments 
of Chinese music. They have a belief, founded on tra- 
dition, that the luminary is about to be devoured by a 
dragon, which catastrophe nothing but noise and tumult 
can prevent; and if outcries can preserve her, the moon 
is safe. When the luminary emerges, the exultation is 
extreme, and every man prides himself on the part he 
himself took to aid her. 

In a country where so many thousand families live 
on the river, many must subsist upon fish, which are 
23* 



270 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

providentially abundant. In China every animal must 
work, unless, as in England, the hog is the only gentle- 
man; cormorants, therefore, are employed in the river 
fisheries. The birds are trained to it with care, and lest 
they should eat a good fish, a leathern thong is tied 
about their neck, so that they cannot swallow. One 
fisherman goes out with a dozen birds, which you may 
see perched on the gunwale of his boat; when one of 
them takes a fish too large for its strength, another comes 
to its assistance, and lifting the prey by the tail and the 
gills, they carry it to the master. Some of the cormo- 
rants, like men, have a sense of honesty, and require no 
bandage about the neck; but having finished their em- 
ployer's business, are allowed to fish on their own ac- 
count. Ducks also are used as in Lincolnshire for de- 
coys; but a very common method to catch the fowl is 
this; in the bays and rivers where they are found, the 
sportsmen throw a large kind of gourd with which the 
ducks get so familiar that they will swim and play around 
them; then comes the traitor, with his head enclosed in 
a similar gourd, and a bag tied about his middle, in which 
as the fowl are numerous, he carries off as many as he 
requires. 

The Chinese have a passion for flowers, and there 
are flower-sellers everywhere in the streets. They 
have also a taste for cultivating dwarf trees, and on their 
terraces you may see pines, oaks and oranges not so 
high as your knee. To give some of these trees the ap- 
pearance of great age, honey is spread over them to at- 
tract the insects that they may bore into the bark, and 
to increase the delusion, a few branches are killed 
and covered with moss. Their rage however is for the. 
peony, which they call the king of flowers, and for a 
favorite plant they will give a hundred dollars. There 
are about two hundred and fifty species of this flower in 



RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 271 

China, cultivated in large beds, and so managed as to 
blossom in spring, summer, and autumn. But Chinese 
flowers have generally nothing but their beauty; their 
lilac is without smell, and their splendid rose, the Hor- 
tensia, without fragrance. 

In China an old bachelor is a phenomenon; it follows 
that there are but few single ladies, and, perhaps, not 
one vestal, where Diana is so generally known as Lu- 
cina. Marriages are early, and blessed with great in- 
crease, and I have often seen, on the gunwale of a lit- 
tle junk, a line of fifteen small children. The Chinese, 
however, are not a gallant race of men, and they do not 
regard females with the romantic deference of our times 
of chivalry. They seldom break a lance for beauty, un- 
less in the unmanly form of a bamboo raised against 
what they should honor, and (as the lawyer says) for- 
ever defend; for the Chinese code, like the English, al- 
lows a husband (or as his lordship is styled in our book, 
a baron) to correct his wife with a stick no larger than 
his thumb. Such privileges in the brave are, I suppose, 
apt to create docility in the fair; and, in China, Grisel- 
da would look too much like the truth, for a popular 
novel. Cinderilla would have the most admirers, where 
to have a little foot is to be every way amiable and at- 
tractive. The fashion of feet, however, varies, even in 
China, where the Tartar ladies take a pride in display- 
ing a foot of substance. They wear a huge shoe, with 
wooden soles turned up at the toe; of course, they do 
not walk gracefully, but they are excellent riders, sitting 
with one foot on each side ofthe horse. 

I think it is stated by Sir George Staunton, that he 
saw few beggars in China, though the population was 
so crowded that he estimated at a hundred thousand the 
number ofthe people living on one branch of a river; 
yet the mass ofthe people are poor, and there seem to 



272 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

be no rich merchants retired from trade, or landholders 
with hereditary domains. In law, if not in fact, the 
land is the Emperor's, and rent is paid in kind. The 
grain is stored in various parts of the empire, and in a 
season of scarcity is so freely distributed that the Em- 
peror sustains the paternal character, and seems to be 
indeed the father of his people. 

In a country with a population so crowded, the cir- 
culating medium is well accommodated to the wants of 
the poor. The lee is a coin of copper, not without alloy, 
of the value of one mill, so that there is a thousand to a 
dollar. There is a hole through the middle and they 
are strung like buttons; but large payments are made in 
silver, cast into lumps often ounces each. The Span- 
ish dollar is current in circulation, but scarce, and I can 
say the same of it where I live. It is said that count- 
less millions have been used to adorn the temples of the 
Lama in China and in Tartary. ' 

When an Emperor dies his coin passes at a discount, 
as under similar circumstances the medals of our own 
great men are depreciated. The coin seems to be 
the only monument that an Emperor can transmit to 
posterity, for the envy of his successor is sure to destroy 
his triumphal arches and pagodas. 

In China there is no union between church and state, 
partly because the Emperor is strong enough alone, but 
principally because there is no church. The people are 
credulous in omens, ana have various methods of divina- 
tion; the most common, before they enter upon any 
great undertaking^ isto throw up a lee, or ' sky a copper,' 
and they abandon the enterprise when the coin comes 
up ' tail.' This is rather a loose method of proceeding, 
but is sagacious enough before a law-suit, whers, with 
all the omens, and the law itself on his side, a man may 
be vanquished. 



' RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 273 

All religions are tolerated, but that of Fo is the most 
general. It includes a belief in transmigration of the 
soul, till the spirit of the transmigrator has atoned the 
misdeeds committed in the first body, and the i lex talio- 
nis ' is the rule of infliction; that is, whatever suffering 
a man has wantonly Caused to others, the same he is 
obliged to endure in their own forms. To me, Sir, this 
would be a startling creed, Tor to say nothing of the 
wounds I have given to the affection of those who are 
now beyond the reach of ingratitude, I should have some- 
thing formidable to suffer besides. I should, according 
to my estimates, be impaled thirteen thousand times in 
the character of a fish worm; I must reanimate the bod- 
ies of two thousand grasshoppers that died of a fish hook 
in the back; I should die four thousand and odd times 
(and often miserably lacerated) with pigeon shot; I 
should revive thrice in the form of an alligator, to be 
dug from my hole and killed with a spade in the head; 
I should live seventy times as a woodchuck in a clover 
field and be as often despatched by a farmer's cub with 
a cudgel; I should live under a bank, as a speckled 
trout, and gasp out life twelve hundred times on the 
green grass of the meadow; and lastly if I must trans- 
migrate and suffer all the pain myself that I have wan- 
t uly or without excuse inflicted, or permitted on other 
animals, I must live and die in the body of poor Rescue, 
who was hung from the great beam on suspicion of steal- 
ing sheep. Neither man nor dog should be executed 
on circumstantial evidence; for Rescue died bold in in- 
nocence, and my heart smites me to this day that I had 
not firmness to resist the clamor of the neighbors, who 
wanted a victim to save their own vile curs. If, after 
all, the doctrine of transmigration should be true, I would 
not, bad as I have been, take the lot of Izaak Walton, 
who has so much reparation to make to frogs, that it 
will take him a great while to get into the fish. 



274 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 



It is common in Europe to reproach the Chinese with 
their practice of destroying or exposing infants, though 
it is so seldom known that it can hardly be termed a 
practice. Sometimes indeed, a new born babe may be 
seen floating down the river, tied to a gourd, that some 
compassionate soul who has the means of supporting, 
may rescue it. But consider, censorious Sir, that where 
a practice has descended from antiquity, it implies far 
less crime to follow it than to commit the same act 
where the feeling and custom and law are agairtst it; 
and did you never read of the exposure of infants in 
London or Paris, or did you never hear of it in more moral 
cities, and are not a thousand infants secretly destroyed 
where the murder of one is detected. In China infan- 
ticide is almost necessary; the population is full; and 
many a man { finds no cover set for him at nature's ta- 
ble.' The land is filled with people, and the single 
branch of a river is thought to contain in floating fam- 
ilies more than a hundred thousand. If we have less 
than the Chinese to answer for in exposing children, do 
we educate them in a better manner? Is there not with 
us a wretched class, the offspring of sin and the inheri- 
tors of shame, brought up from their cradle to follow evil 
rather than good? Hearken to the schoolmaster. A 
child is born into the world which he soon finds to be 
one of sorrow. He is wrapped in amass of clothes that 
checks the circulation, and embarrasses the free motion ! 
of his iimbs. He is soon frightened with tales of ghosts 
that ■ squeak and gibber ' till darkness aud solitude be- 
come a state of suffering. It is little better for his in- 
tellect to be amused with fairy tales or the usual nursery 
rhymes. When with his comrades at the narrow school, 
two amiable principles lead him through the flinty 
paths of learning, pride and fear; the fear of the pain 
rather than the shame of punishment, and the pride of 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 275 

excelling his mates. He is instructed in languages and 
sciences, but who gives him religious and moral instruc- 
tion ? At the period of life, when the disposition is ar- 
dent and new impressions indelible, what kind master 
instructs him in the sorrow and shame that follow de- 
ceit, or the indissoluble union between duty and hap- 
piness? Fellow citizens! listen to the pedagogue. If you 
subject yourselves to the responsible relation of parents 
it is fearful to neglect the duties. Bestow upon the morals 
a tythe of the time devoted to Latin and there will be 
to the public less crime, and to you in your age more 
respect and gratitude. Is there any excuse for an un- 
dutifulson? Yes, the care of his parents in his youth 
that he should advance more in knowledge than in vir- 
tue. 



NO. IV. 

Sir — In my last letter concerning transmigrations I 
forgot to state that old Kien Long was so well satisfied 
with the mind that animated his body as to believe it 
that of Fo himself. This opinion seemed to him so rea- 
sonable that he acted upon it, and his temples dedicated 
to Fo, were so splendid as to employ a great part of the 
silver imported to China, and what has gone from our 
city is enough to ornament at least one altar. I never 
heard, however, that the Chinese Emperor imitated the 
sagacious Roman and acted as priest to himself. 

The Chinese have with strangers that easy confi- 
dence that with us a rich man feels towards the poor; 
that kind of self-possession, founded on conscious supe- 
riority, and sometimes called impudence. The polite- 



276 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

ness of China is established by law. It is a strict cere- 
monial, and as a stranger knows nothing of it, and as a 
Chinese thinks it founded on what Square calls ' the 
rule of right and eternal fitness of things,' the self com- 
placency of the polite Mandarin is mingled with a little 
contempt for the stranger. When the Chinese, how- 
ever, has shewn off his accomplishments in the eye of a 
less refined foreigner, he is so good natured as to make 
him forget the vast difference between the parties, by 
an obliging condescension. Chinese politeness, like 
the religion of the Catholics, (and some of the Protes- 
tants) is one of ceremonial. It is convenient, inasmuch 
as it does not compel a man to surrender his own pleas- 
ure to another; for the demands of civility are satisfied 
with certain established movements of the body and nod- 
dings of the head. No less convenient is a religion that 
is confined to formal observances. If a man be a thief, 
and steal the property of his neighbor, or worse, a ca- 
lumniator, and rob him of his good name, the creed that 
would command restitution and repentance, must be less 
agreeable than that which buys the absolution of the 
priest, or the intercession of St Peter. 

There are good catholics at Macao, where there is 
a bishop who is truly a pious man. At the same place, 
in a population of seven thousand Portuguese, there are 
fourteen churches, four monasteries, one convent for 
nuns and another for Magdalens; the latter ladies are 
shut up till they are married, and as a good name is not 
there an indispensable dowry, they are soon released. 

The Portuguese character at Macao is equally ami- 
able with the national peculiarities at Lisbon. The Hi- 
dalgo will not soil his hands with toil, but condescends 
to beg; and ke is as brave as he is industrious. It would 
be hard to settle the question of the relative courage of 
the Portuguese and Chinese, as it has never been test- 



RECOLLECTIONS IN CHINA. 277 

ed in the field, but John China-man shuts the land gate 
and starves his neighbour into his own way of thinking; 
for there is a strange connexion of the intellect with the 
appetite, as you may see if you happen to be sitting with 
a discordant jury. I hope, Sir, to be tried for this libel 
after dinner, for ' wretches hang, that jurymen may dine.' 

The Chinese, with a great many secrets in the arts, 
are yet ignorant in the sciences. Lord Amherst won 
the heart of the Viceroy of Canton, by the present of a 
phosphorus bottle, to light his pipe, and the great man 
exulted that he could carry fire without burning his 
pocket. 

The medical profession in China is not lucrative, and 
a fee, in case of difficulty, is about sixpence sterling. 
The student obtains the knowledge of the profession, 
like Gil Bias with Doctor Sangrado — by watching the 
practice of his master, rather than turning over books. 
Surgery is in a state of similar advancement, amputa- 
tion is unknown, and, in cases of mortification, death, 
instead of the doctor, relieves the patient; though in 
America I have known both upon him at once. The 
Emperor's physicians are eunuchs, but Kien Long had 
so good a constitution, that he survived all his physicians, 
though, strange to tell, he took their medicines. The 
accoucheurs are invariably females; — a different state 
of things would be considered preposterous. The reg- 
ular physicians, in consideration of their slender fees, 
are allowed to practise on horses and cattle, and, with 
so much skill that they oftener lose a man than an ox- 
They have adopted the judicious way of some of our 
doctors, to bring their merits before an undiscriminat- 
ing public. They have handbills, testifying to their 
skill and cures. I do not know that they have the lo- 
24 



278 RECOLLECTIONS IN CHINA. 

belia; though they have means equally speedy of draw- 
ing a patient's sufferings to a close. 

A Chinese physician not only desires to give good 
medicine, but is anxious to administer it at a lucky time; 
— and this is throwing a fee in the way of a professional 
brother, for a conjuror is consulted for the auspicious 
hour. There is a medicine in great demand; it is a 
kind of elixir vitce, or draught of immortality. All men 
die, yet their successors have the confidence to drink. 
Grave men may smile at this; but what is their own cus- 
tom? Have they not some favorite ' drop or nostrum,' 
that is to keep death at bay for the present, and, when 
the present becomes the past, that will still cast the grim, 
1 but sceptered sovereign, ' far into the shadows of the fu- 
ture? Do any men think to die at the present moment, 
and is not all time the present? This elixir is thought, 
by Sir George Staunton, to be composed chiefly of opi- 
um, and when the candidate for immortality is under its 
influence, his visions are so beatific that they seem like 
a foretaste. 

The Chinese have for ages practised inoculation for 
the small pox; the matter is put upon a piece of cotton 
and thrust up the nostril, and if the patient lives, he was 
born under a lucky star, to which he is as much indebt- 
ed as to his doctor. , 

Were you joking? or was it really your fortune to 
serve the commonwealth on the jury, at a dollar a day ? 
It is a splendid allowance for a responsible office. 
There is nothing like it in China, where the juryman's 
duty is discharged by the judge; a system of economy 
like ours of brevet, in which a man is obliged to sup- 
port the splendor of two titles, with the pay that pertains 
to the less. This trial by jury is called a great bulwark, 
and on paper it looks remarkably well; but abuses will 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 279 

creep into the best of systems. The inlet to abuse is, 
that the returns of jurymen are too general, and include 
men that I would not trust to count fifty; I should 
not like to be tried by such, though, when my time 
comes, I shall have no choice. Be honest, and tell, 
in the form of a note, if some of your twelve did not fall 
asleep in the box. Were not four of them shallow, four 
obstinate, two careless, and the rest not over attentive? 
Be pacified, grave Sir, I mean not the men who com- 
posed that jury, for I know them not, but I am speaking 
of what too often occurs. The jurors are taken from 
the body of the people, and I grant you that it is in the 
main a respectable body; yet I would that some of them 
had stayed longer at school; jurymen should be above 
the reach of prejudice or party excitement. In this 
country (it is well said) we have no rabble; true, we 
have not a race of vagabonds without home or family, 
local attachment; or moral honesty — but we have a for- 
midable body of men who despise knowledge in others 
because they are themselves ignorant, and who would 
banish refinement and elevation of character, because 
they are the mark of a gentleman. They have among 
themselves, men whom they delight to honor, because it 
is elevating a brazen image of themselves. Their fa- 
vorites owe their popularity to a readiness in flattering 
the faults of their constituents, and in calumniating men 
more intelligent and honorable than themselves; they 
foment the jealousy that the ignorant naturally feel to- 
wards the better informed, and ride into office on the 
storm that they themselves have raised. Tt is a bad 
sign for the constitution when such men bear sway. 
Within the present century it was, all over New Eng- 
land, a character for a man, that he had a liberal educa- 
tion and was a gentleman. I am no aristocrat, though I 
stand for the aristocracy of merit ; but Ave live in a high- 



280 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

ly artificial state of society and of political economy, to 
understand which men must read as well as think; and 
I will as soon believelhat a blacksmith is a proper per- 
son to repair a watch, as that a man with no other qual- 
ifications than ignorance and impudence, can make or 
administer the laws. 

Here is much evil already, and the germ of more; 
what is the remedy? schoolhouses; every question in 
the last appeal comes to the people; theirs is the su- 
preme tribunal, but ignorance never made a good judge. 
I do not say or believe that the greatest scholars are 
the wisest men, but there is a high degree of general 
intelligence necessary in this country to preserve our 
institutions. If the body of the people are ignorant, 
more, if they are not very intelligent, they will be dupes 
to the crafty and unprincipled. They must have an 
early and faithful, but plain education, and there will 
be no country on earth so happy and flourishing as this; 
but if our youth are brought up in ignorance themselves, 
and are excited to distrust knowledge in others, Turkey 
itself is not so near to a fall as these United States. 

I, Sir, am one of the people; my sympathies and 
good wishes are rather with the Plebeians than the Pa- 
tricians, yet I lament that the most numerous class 
should be ..deluded by the craft of~the designing — that 
they should distrust one man because he is intelligent, 
and confide in another because he abuses what he can- 
not attain to, or comprehend. 

Educate the rulers, that is, send the people to school, 
and they will be well able to govern themselves, but a 
wild horse is not wilder than an ignorant, and therefore 
a wilful man, clothed in'authority. But lop off the mili- 
tia system and have the same rate of fines for delin- 
quents at school, and we shall have better citizens as 
well as better soldiers. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA, 281 

Jt is a great thing for China that she has a permanent 
fashion of national dress. A national dress makes a 
man more patriotic, as it gives him a vivid conception of 
the great and good of antiquity, and forms a desirable 
distinction between people of different countries. It is, 
moreover, a measure of private economy, very advan- 
tageous in a crowded population. In this country, dress 
is a terrible tax upon industry, for not even a plain 
schoolmaster can hold his station in society, without at 
least a biennial coat; while in China, the same garment 
covers successive generations of men. I myself, once 
endeavoured (though not from choice) to overturn this 
state of things, but what can one man do against an 
universal evil. This was at .Ratsburgh, where I kept 
my first school, twentyseven years ago, and ' boarded 
round.' There was a ball at Thanksgiving, (it was 
enjoined in the proclamation) and I went, in- a coat that 
was first expanded at my father's wedding, some lus- 
trums before. I have forgotten what was the fashion 
then, for it has since changed a hundred times, but well 
I remember the contour of that coat; the skirts were 
skirts indeed, and in dancing flapped against my ancles; 
the waist was under the shoulder-blades, and in front 
was a row of gilded buttons, touching each other, to the 
top of the collar. But in these latter days, we judge a 
stranger exclusively from his dress, and it was the 
saying of a poor man in a profession, that he could not 
afford to wear a cheap coat, it would cost him half his 
patients. 

Have I told you anything of the Great Wall? Sir 
George Staunton described it accurately, for he crossed 
it in going from Pekin to Zhe-hol. The majesty of 
China was then resident in Tartary, at the ' Palace of 
Grateful Coolness,' in the ' Grove of Innumerable 
Trees.' The Wall, is misnamed, it is rather a chain of 
24* 



282 RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 

forts, of the extent of fifteen hundred miles; the idea of 
a wall does not include half its wonders, even as our 
White Mountains with all their grandeur, are belittled 
by the name of Hills. 

On the fourth day of the embassay's journey from 
Pekin, was seen a line running through valleys and over 
the summits of mountains. As the cavalcade approach- 
ed, they discovered bastions and battlements, and at 
important passes several successive ranges of the wall. 
This line of defence ran over mountains six thousand 
feet in height, and across rivers of the largest size. 
The general height, without the battlements, was twen- 
tyfive feet, and the thickness was about the same. 

A volume of Roman history might have given the 
Chinese some better learning on the subject of walls. 
It would have shown them the policy of Romulus, and 
they would have gathered more wisdom from later times. 
They would havo seen the constant struggles of the 
North to overcome and overrun the fertile South. 
Could walls defend a country, the Alps had defended 
Italy — what wall is like them? yet the African, the Gaul, 
and the Goth, poured over its summit upon the land of 
the olive and vine. To build a wall of defence is to 
invite an attack; as it intimates at the same time wealth 
and cowardice. There can be no better wall than a line 
of hay between two rail fences, or a hasty redoubt of 
cotton bags. But the Chinese carry the principle 
to their private dwellings; and their houses are sur- 
rounded by a wall eight feet high, where is entrenched 
a family of several generations; as, if he be safe, a 
Chinese little cares how; for, (in the language of Field- 
ing's learned turnkey) — 

' Virtus an bolus quis in a hostess equiret.' 

E. D. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA, 283 



NO. V. 

Sir. — The population of China is to us Americans, 
who require a square mile each to bustle in, almost a 
marvel. We are not unsocial, though we like not to 
have our neighbours too near ; and our resource, when 
one comes ' cranking in,' is to emigrate westward 
where the forest never echoed to an axe. In Illinois a 
man considers himself cramped if there be a neighbour 
within fifteen miles. But then a family over the moun- 
tains, though it occupy but one room, can bring to the 
forest twelve or fourteen axes, and the average number 
of white headed urchins in one household, is twenty 
two. But there, as in China, is no celibacy. The 
Chinese have no wars to which they can send their 
vagabonds, ' the cankers of a calm world and long 
peace.' China, for this unlucky absence of wars, is 
crowded with houseless vagrants, ' that eat the wall 
newt and the water newt.' Consider that there are 
about three hundred people to a square mile, who cul- 
tivate the earth faithfully, and draw more subsistence 
from bread than from beer. Necessity teaches them 
economy in the expenditure of food, and our overstock- 
ed commonwealth would support twice the number if we 
would follow the thrifty practice of the Chinese, and in- 
troduce to our tables, cats, dogs, rats, mice, 'and such 
small deer.' 

There are few cattle in China, where the land is re- 
quired to be more productive than in grazing. The 
Emperor is the great and universal landlord, letting out 
his lands like a feudal baron on a variety of tenures, 
though not upon mortmain. Yet for so great a prince 
he has some strange humilities, he permits certain cen- 
sors to record his actions, and sometimes they venture 



284 RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA 

to censure, but this is to walk, like Seneca, on slippery 
ground, and may cost the philosopher his life. Flattery 
is venial where sincerity is so perilous. The great 
landlord has a road over his farm, from which the ten- 
ants are excluded. It is ten feet wide, and it is death 
for a pig to cross it, or for a subject to travel on it. It 
is swept like a parlor, watered like a garden, and shaded 
like a bower. 

The Emperors of China have a practice at variance 
with that of the potentates of Europe ; they never 
marry a foreign princess, but select their wives from 
the daughters of the Mandarins. When the Emperor 
dies, they are widows indeed, but upon the principle 
that boggled Falstaff — compulsion. . They are shut up 
in a cold northern edifice, called the Palace of Chastity, 
for it is considered derogatory to the dignity of the 
prince's memory, that his princess should be devoted to 
anything but the cold urn of her husband ; a d truly I 
think that Agrippina, as described by Tacitus, landing 
at Brundusium, with her eyes fixed upon the ashes of 
Germanicus, makes a better figure in history, than 
Maria Louisa, listening to Wellington or Saxe Cobourg. 
But this I hope is a calumny upon the Djchess of Parma 
and widow of Napoleon. 

The daughters of a Chinese Emperor are not married 
to foreign princes, but given in marriage to favorite and 
faithful servants. The Emperor is too powerful to sell 
his offspring in exchange for the uncertain favor of 
another monarch ; and when, even in Europe, did a 
family alliance predominate over a reason of state, or 
when, among princes, was the expedient deferred to the 
right. 

The Chinese, however, have adopted some European 
practices. As there are many offices with inadequate 
salaries, and as no man cares to serve his country for 



RECOLLECTION* OF CHINA. 285 

nothing, a Mandarin, in spite of Magna Charta, brings 
his patriotism to market, and sells justice or pardon at 
regular prices. But there is no monopoly in this ; the 
Emperor, as it is right, has the first advantage, receiv- 
ing a mighty sum from the viceroys, who in return have 
their purses from the Mandarins, who again look for 
remuneration from the people. 

But it is safe for no man to display his wealth, in 
China he had better be content to hide and enjoy it. 
A Mandarin has got a broker's eye for a money-bag, 
and when it is discovered, there comes some grievous 
charge of the violation of the law of ceremony, which 
subjects the offender to speedy death, while his effects 
pass to the officer as administrator. Yet the Mandarins 
are liable to punishment if they defer justice, and at 
their gate there is a gong which any suitor may ring, 
and the functionary must discharge his duty at any hour; 
but then there is a clause in the law, making it penal 
to strike the gong for frivolous causes, and as the 
Mandarin adjudges the importance of the cause, few 
petitioners use this privilege. 

One of the Emperors of China who loved pleasure 
beiter than daylight) and who disliked the succession of 
nijjht arid day, built a palace of innumerable lamps, a 
hall like thatofEblis, where the sun would not rise 
upon his slumber, or go down upon his mirth. The same 
Emperor, however, wished to know what was doing 
among the stars, and made some judicious regulations 
for the encourgement of astronomy ; for he ordered 
that all astronomers should be put to death, who failed 
to announce an eclipse. By this method he had better 
almanacs than he would have had, by giving a medal or 
a premium for the best. This Palace of the Illumina- 
tions was the true origin of the feast of lamps, so praised 
in Japan, by your prosing Boston Merchant, 



286 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 

I have sometimes seen an affray between two pugna- 
cious Chinese. They first attempt to catch each other 
by the tail, or long tuft of hair, 

'Then comes the tug of war,' 

at every jerk they make hideous grimaces that would be 
applauded at a grinning match. They seldom strike a 
blow, and when one party gives the other a slight tap 
with a fan, the contest is over, the offender running 
away from justice, which the injured seeks of the Man- 
darin, who is prompt to avenge any flogging but his own. 

You may safely say, when you have read these recol- 
lections, that you know nothing of China. To judge of 
a country by such sketches, would be to condemn a 
temple from the specimen of a single brick ; for at Can- 
ton less can be learned of the Chinese, than of the Eng- 
lish at Wapping. 

Some great man, at the time when the philosophers of 
Europe were full of admiration for Chinese institutions, 
lamented that he had not been born in China ; but, had 
he known more of the Empire, his regrets would have 
been less. Even Voltaire, who, it was said, believed 
by turns, everything but the Bible, gave credit to the 
superior moral excellence of the Chinese. China was 
held to be a sort of Asiatic Arcadia, a. country without 
crimes, where men lived in innocence and acted only 
from good impulses. The public were bent upon being 
deluded ; or when they read of monuments to chaste 
women and just Mandarins, they would have doubted 
if what was universal would be thus commemorated, 
and if the arches and pagodas were not rather an inti- 
mation of the infrequency of chastity, and justice, for 
inscriptions on tombstones depend as much on the fancy 
of the writers as on the characters of the deceased. 



RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 287 

The English embassies gave us better knowledge of 
China. To the Dutch, we are less indebted. These 
high-minded people, when they found that the English 
had failed, through want of docility, in the kotou, pre- 
pared with alacrity, an embassy upon more accommoda- 
ting principles. The envoy was willing to knock his 
head as often as requested, and the secretary records 
the particulars, as if they had been food for national 
vanity. 

The Abbe Raynal also thought the Chinese a nation 
of philosophers. Their philosophy, however, resembles 
more that of Diogenes, than that of Socrates or Plato. 
In mathematics, they have produced no one like Archi- 
medes, or I would, in imitation of Cicero, remove the 
brambles from his tomb. Yet, one of the worthy mis- 
sionaries praises their love of the mathematics, though, 
said the honest man, ' they know little of them.' The 
Chinese, indeed, refer to their own annals to show, that 
twenty centuries ago, they were highly civilized; but it 
is more probable that they lived in caverns and trees, 
for they admit that their country was so full of snakes, 
that the salutation of one man to another was, ( I hope 
you have not been bitten.' These same philosophers 
have a language of monosyllables, and written charac- 
ters, as difficult to be acquired as any of the sciences in 
Europe; it is an admirable invention to keep the people 
ignorant. Where the language is rude, what can be 
hoped for the sciences? it is but slow and uncertain tra- 
velling, where there is no road. It has been thought 
that the present is the remnant of a more perfect lan- 
guage, fallen upon a race of men that cannot improve or 
restore it. No man has power to introduce a new cha- 
racter but the Emperor, which is too strict for republi- 
can institutions. Here, with us, each man coins his 
own words, without danger of punishment; but, in the 



288 RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 

empire, it is safer to alter the Emperor's coin, than his 
Chinese. 

Many of the fifty thousand Chinese characters are 
pictures of the object signified. A prison is denoted by 
a square enclosure, like a pound, which, with a dot in 
the middle, expresses a captive. The character that 
signifies a tree, if used twice, denotes a thicket, and 
thrice, a forest; and time repeated, is eternity. 

There is much ingenuity in the compound characters. 
The character for water and mother, when combined, de- 
note the sea, mother of waters; good and word, together, 
make praise, which is a good word; calamity is express- 
ed by^re and water, fire and sword, and also by a broken 
reed, probably the bamboo, which, in China, is a true 
symbol; an ear and door signify to listen; to grieve, is 
expressed by a heart and knife, and to meditate, by a 
heart and field; a sword, pointing to a heart, like a free- 
mason's, signifies patience, and a bargain is denoted by 
a word and nail, (probably clenched.) 

The Chinese are as little gallant in their characters, 
as the Castilians in their proverbs; the mark for a 
woman, if repeated, is strife, and if used three times, may 
mean anything bad. A barber is signified by razor and 
respect, and doubtless a man is more respectable when 
shaved; comfort is expressed by rice and mouth — and 
there are a thousand similar compounds, as you may 
see in the Great Dictionary of two hundred volumes. 

Literature in China is an open field,* where all may 
reap or glean. If an author avoid politics, he may with 
safety outrage good morals or good taste; but with us, 
he may do this in politics. 

Thus, sir, have I performed what I promised of China. 
These recollections are but shreds and patches, con- 
nected without order or art. I have fallen, too, into 



RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. '289 

repetitions and contradictions, by forgetting often what 
I had previously written, and in the last letter, I have 
borrowed from an old review. 

I will write for your newspapers no more; I grow 
careless in style, for I seem to be sitting by you and 
talking, and therefore slip into a mode of writing quite 
colloquial; besides, I must labor in my great work, the 
translation of Tacitus, for the use of my three scholars. 
But for these Recollections, if I can escape censure, I 
will not look for praise. E. D. 



i5 



THE SCHOOLMASTER. 

[From the Legendary.*] 



■ Priscian, a little scratched.' 



On a memorable day in August, I emerged from the 
red schoolhouse on the Germantown road, where, for 
sixteen years, I had trained the rising generations of 
men in all the sciences — but more particularly in the 
knowledge of reading and writing. 

Of my little scholars I took a mournful and affecting 
leave, bestowing on them a parting address, better — that 
is, longer — than three hours, which it is my intention 
to publish, as a specimen of eloquence in modern times. 
It produced a great sensation among the benches, and 
I had the pleasure of seeing many eyes as red as beets 
with weeping, though I scorn to deny that I perceived, 
simultaneously, the scent of an onion. 

Packing my wardrobe in the crown of my hat, and 
my coin in a small tobacco-box, I walked slowly and 
sorrowfully down to the great city, which, like Babylon 
of old, is of brick, and which was founded by a man 

* This article is reprinted from the Legendary, to make a book of 
the proposed size. All pieces that follow, have appeared in the 
Courier, or were originally written for it. 



THE SCHOOLMASTER. 291 

not unlike myself in his reverence for a right angle. 
The city is a magnificent chess board; and if a knight 
would advance thereon a mile, it is needful to turn 
thrice to the right and as often to the left. 

Let me not omit to premise, that I had, at German- 
town, cherished a tender sentiment till it threw a purple 
light, chequered with shade, over my whole existence. 
Therefore I resolved to journey westward, seeking — 
in aliquo abdiio et Icnginquo rure — some 'happy valley,' 
where I could cultivate love without jealousy, or, in 
other words, pass life without care. These at least 
were the motives that I held out to the world; that fs, 
to half a dozen friends who inquired coldly, whither I 
would go; yet, doubtless, I was somewhat incited by 
that restless national spirit, that leads so many to seek 
Fortune beyond the mountains, at the very moment 
when the goddess — though I am no heathen — begins to 
smile on them at home. 

Though no sectarian in philosophy, I travelled as a 
peripatetic. My only comrade was one, who, though 
ranked among curs, is more faithful to his master than 
some other dogs of higher lineage, and that wear richer 
collars. His, however, was a ' braw brass collar,' bear- 
ing his master's name, and his own, which was Jowler, 
and a motto, Cave Canem, suggested by a great travel- 
ler who had read it on a Roman threshold at Pompeii. 

In my hand I ported a cvabstick that I had cut in the 
woods of Camden, and I carried in my pocket a ferule, 
that had descended from my grandfather, and which, 
therefore, I have tasted as well as administered. This 
I took as a diploma, to be a passport to the confidence 
and tables of the great — of esquires, judges, and gen- 
erals, titles, that, in a plain republic, where none seek 
or refuse an office, often pertain to one fortunate man. 



292 THE SCHOOLMASTER, 

Indulge me with a last word concerning the ferule, 
or, as Maro hath it — for I like a new quotation — 

' Extremum hunc mihi concede laborem.' 
Generally I prefer it to the birch. In Latin I hold a 
divided opinion; but in ' rhetoric,' and its kindred 
studies, it seems fitting and emblematical, to deal with 
the ' open palm.' Moreover, in ' correcting' an offen- 
der it is proper to look him in the face. If I see there a 
sullen obstinacy, lam too much his friend to spare him; 
but if I mark a manful resolution to bear the pain, and 
a shrinking only from the disgrace, that is a boy after 
my own heart, and he has little to suffer from the 
seveiity of his master. 

Thus attended and equipped, I went forth rejoicing, 
for I had much to delight, and nothing to afflict me, till 
I came to the Susquehanna, where, at Harrisburgh, 
I lamented aneW over the grave of a friend, Simon 
Snyder, who had been governor of the commonwealth. 
But that friendly man was dead, and probably decayed, 
though there is authority no less than Shakspeare's — - 
and the grave-digger gives the reason — that ' a tanner 
will last you some nine year.' 

The Susquehanna is broad but not deep, and you 
may, if you would perpetrate injustice, apply the same 
character to me. It has a sonorous name, and is a 
beautiful stream, bending, with a noble sweep, around 
wild or cultivated hills, reflecting thei* pride, and carry- 
ing upon its waters the rich products of their soil. 

Not far from York I ascended the South Mountain, 
an outpost or advanced guard of the Alleghanies, and 
time and travelling soon brought me to the main body. 

I passed an hour at a rude village to which Indian 
massacre has given the name of Bloody Run, and here 
I studied diligently the features of a countenance entirely 
seraphic. It was like the most celestial of Raffaelle's 



THE SCHOOLMASTER. 293 

Madonnas, or the purest of Carlo Dolce's Saints. I had 
not thought, when I left Germantown behind, to find 
such beings among the mountains; yet this admiration 
of what was beautiful and pure, had no connexion with 
infidelity, and could not have offended the lady whose 
ring the schoolmaster aspires to wear. It was but his 
perception of the same qualities in another that are so 
attractive in ker, though in no other can they be, to him, 
so amiable. I left the dark haired cherub with regret, 
for I may never see another, or her, again. 

At Bedford I entered the schoolhouse, making known 
to the master my name and calling, and as much of my 
life and opinions as might attract his regard, when the 
kind soul seated me at his desk, pressing me to examine 
his school; and I closed the examination with a short 
address. 

He walked with me several miles, to the foot of the 
Alleghany Ridge, but when I asked him to ascend it, 
that good and grave man shook his head, for he was of 
few words when signs could express his meaning. I 
left him standing like a statue of Silertce, while I 
walked briskly on, animated with renewed benevolence 
to the whole human race; for the kindness of that worthy 
gentleman seemed to be transfused into my own soul. 

This, ridge gives its name to the mountains, and, to 
geographers, the bold figure, ' the backbone of the 
United States;' but Uncle Sam has grown so much 
from his original shape, that at present the spine is 
somewhere in the side of that strong man. Having 
reached the summit T looked down upon an interminable 
valley or 'glade,' where cultivation had so much en- 
croached upon the wilderness, that the rivers reflected 
alternate forest and farm. Other ridges, blue in the 
distance, lay before me, and the Laurel and Chestnut 
gave names to the next. 
25* 



294 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 

On the bleak side of the Chestnut Ridge, I entered 
a log cabin that had been the abode of misfortune, 
where an old soldier retired to his miserable dole, and 
shared it with the needy traveller; though seldom was 
the most needy as poor as General St Clair. Fellow 
citizens! it is neither generous nor just, when a man 
has served us faithfully and long, to turn him out to 
graze on the hill side like an old war horse that can no 
longer charge; or to let him starve like an aged hound, 
that has lost its teeth for an ungrateful master. 

The Alleghanies have little of the sublime, but much 
of the beautiful. In wildness and abruptness they can- 
not be compared with the White _ Mountains. Yet, 
when villages with red schoolhouses shall be sprinkled 
over them, he must go far who would find a more 
attractive country. To me these mountains were charm- 
ing and new, and I loitered among them with a school- 
boy lightness of heart, careless of the future and obliv- 
ious of the past. Often did I quit the road, attracted 
by the sound of a waterfall or the coolness of a fountain, 
of which thousands are gushing from the rocks. 

I could never, when alone, resist a ducklike propen- 
sity to play in running water, though I have frowned 
upon the same pastime among the urchins of the school, 
principally from a care of their health, but partly from 
that unamiable principle that makes us so inlolerant to 
our own faults when we see them reflected in others. 
It may sink me as a moral philosopher in your esteem, 
as much as it would raise me as a good soul among my 
scholars, to confess that I toiled half a day among the 
mountains to make a dam across a little torrent, and 
that, when I had completed this beaver-like monument, 
I left it with the regret that all men feel when dismount- 
ed from their hobby. Your own I believe to be Pega- 
sus, but seldom, as I think, have you reason for a simi- 
lar regret. 



THE SCHOOLMASTER. 295 

As I was sitting on a log, listening to the sounds of 
my little waterfall, 

' mellow murmur, and fairy shout.' 
they seemed at intervals to be mingled with the tolling 
of a distant bell, and it had great solemnity of effect, to 
hear, in these solitudes of creation, the sound that man , 
has consecrated to the worship of the Creator. 

Yet I knew that I was distant fifty mUes from even 
the rudest church, and this sound, to state the truth, 
was too puzzling for satisfaction. I was forced to give 
it up as a bad conundrum, lamenting that the senses, 
with a little aid from fancy, lead us to error as well as 
to truth, for, deciding by the ear, I could have almost 
sworn that I had heard a ' church-going bell.' Yet in 
turning the angle of a rock I fell upon a little colony of 
emigrants, and what I had listened to was but the bell 
that tinkled from one of their herd; though, while it 
lasted, my delusion was complete. So it is-in other, and 
in all things; therefore let us have more charity for the 
opinions of others, and less confidence in the infallibility 
of our own. 

These people were hospitable as Bedouins, and 
pressed a hungry traveller, who never stood upon cere- 
mony, to a supper of venison collops that would have 
satisfied Daniel Boon. 

As I swam with the current, I saw less of the stream 
of emigration than I should have seen if going eastward; 
yet I found emigrants of almost every European nation, 
though, mostly, they were from the British Islands. 
Among these were many Irish, though there were not 
wanting the ' men of Kent ' or of f pleasant Tivi'dale. 7 
Some of them had flocks and herds, and others were no 
richer than a pedagogue, and this is saying little for 
their wealth. But it is a most unfortunate road for 
charity. The fountains of benevolence are frozen,, 
where every man is a publican. 



296 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 

I once met at a Dutch tavern, a humble old man, 
who seemed to owe little gratitude to fortune. The 
German boor repulsed his timid efforts at conversation, 
for a Dutchman, though not always civil to a traveller 
who has money, is invariably rude to him who has it not. 
The poor man next solicited the acquaintance of my dog, 
who very frankly wagged his tail in reply, for he is as 
good natured, almost, as his master. As the veteran 
eeemed to have survived the last of his friends, and was 
as venerable in front as Cincinnatus himself, I invited 
him to share my supper — it was not of turnips — and 
had the pleasure of seeing him assail it as if he had 
seldom fared so well. 

There is, in the morning, a singular appearance about 
the mountains. The body of mist, rising from the glades, 
settles at a certain altitude, and, from above, it looks 
like au ocean with islands; for the green summits of the 
lesser hills rise above the vapor, and present to the eye 
and the imagination an insular paradise; yet, when the 
mist had arisen, like a veil from a pretty face, it was 
not always to increase my admiration, for the"/ancy dis- 
covered beauties in the obscurity, that the eye could 
not find in the light of the sun. 

On the summits of the mountains I beheld frequent 
vestiges of the tempest in trees riven by lightning or 
prostrated by the tornado; and they suggested, to an 
humble pedestrian, the consoling reflection, that the 
highest are not the safest places. It was my fortune to 
behold a war of the elements as awful as that which 
assailed the demented monarch; but, like Lear, I was 
near to a hovel, one of the hospices erected for the 
poor or benighted traveller, and there I rested through 
the night, sheltered from the fury, but elevated and 
appalled by the uproar of the tempest. 



THE SCHOOLMASTER. 297 

The next day the wind was still a hurricane, and as I 
descended to the thick forests of the valley, it was a 
singular sight to behold the tops of the trees wrenching 
in the gale, while not a leaf was stirred below. 

Deep woods and solitudes have always inclined my 
spirit to devotion. The ' solemn temples ' that the piety 
of man has raised to the worship of his Maker, are less 
impressive than a primeval forest; and among churches, 
those that have the greatest devotional influence on the 
mind are Gothic cathedrals, that owe half their charac- 
ter to their resemblance to a grove. 

To sustain it in devotional duties, human weakness 
requires the aid of local situation and solemn ceremo- 
nials. The piety of even the devout Johnson was 
1 warmer in the ruins of Iona,' and the Liturgy of the 
English Church no less elevates the confidence of the 
righteous, and inspires hope in others who pray to be 
delivered from evil. 



Having crossed the mountains, I descended the Ohio, 
the most beautiful of rivers. The Alleghany is limpid 
and swift, the Monongahela more turbid and slow. One 
may remind you of a Frenchman, the other, of a Span- 
iard; in their union, they may bring to your recollection 
a grave and placid gentleman, who desires to take for 
the better., a more joyous companion. 

In this rich and wonderful valley of the West, gran- 
deur is stamped upon the works of creation. What are 
the meagre and boasted Tybur and Arno, the Illyssus 
and Eurotas, to a stream navigable to three thousand 
miles, and rolling, long before it meets the ocean, through 
a channel of sixty fathom! What, but grottoes, are the 
vaunted caves or catacombs of Europe, to the mighty 



298 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 

caverns of the West — that extend beneath wider dis- 
tricts than German principalities, and under rivers larger 
than the Thames. Ye sun-burnt travellers! whose 
caravans have rested under the shade of the banyan, 
while ye marvelled at the circuit of its limbs — come to 
the Ohio- and see a tree that will shelter a troop of horse 
in the cavity of its trunk. 

A stroll even now upon the ' Beautiful River,' will 
explain the enthusiasm that led the first bold hunters of 
the ' Long Knife,' to the forests of the ' Bloody Ground.' 
Danger was but a cheap price, at which they enjoyed 
the rich, wild profusion of the West, when it first open- 
ed to the admiration of civilized men. 

It was my good fortune to see one of those aged sons 
of the forest, who, in his youth, had loved danger and 
venison better than Robin Hood; for Kentucky had 
other rangers than guarded deer in Sherwood Forest. 
The lands that he had taken in the wilderness now hold 
a populous city, and have made the fortunes of his 
countless progeny. He had paid the purchase by in- 
stalments, and when the dreaded day of payment ap- 
proached, he would stroll with his rifle a few hundred 
Bales to shoot an Indian for the bounty on his scalp. 

I descended the river as I had hoped to pass through 
life — suffering no damage from the rapids, and lost in 
admiration of the beauty of the banks. At Vevay, in 
the county of Switzerland, I moored my bark, and have 
cast anchor for life among a kind and simple race that 
sing the Ranz des vaches in an adopted country, hallow- 
ed by names that remind them of their Alps. 



THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 



Discite justitiam moniti, et non temnere Divos. 



Having, in my present retirement, some leisure for 
writings and much for reflection, I devote it to a sketch 
of my life; in reading which, something may be learned 
of my opinions. The motto prefixed is, probably, Latin, 
and it was kindly furnished by the chaplain. My pre- 
sent seclusion is not the voluntary solitude of an anchor- 
ite, for I am in a municipal citadel, that is under the im- 
mediate protection of the State. 

From the governor of this castle (he is called also the 
keeper, though the word smacks of Exeter 'Change,) I 
abstracted a book, that I have diligently read; and lean 
say as much of no other but the ' Games ' of Mr^PIoyle. 
The governor's, was a book, of Roman history, and it is 
in reference to a passage therein, that I have titled my- 
self — ' Last of the Blacklegs.' 

I find that one Cremutius Cordus destroyed himself, 
in distrust of the clemency of a mild Emperor, named 
Tiberius, who was distinguished by many other prince- 
ly qualities. The guilt, that weighed so heavily upon 
the culprit, was, that he had, in his history, called an 



300 THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 

obscure man, whom I had never before read of, ' The 
Last of the Romans;' and this, as Cassius had been 
dead for many years, was neither adroit flattery to the 
Emperor, nor a high compliment tendered by the author 
to himself. Now I shall not be so blind to my own mer- 
its as to class myself with Cassius, for with all my fail- 
ings, (and I have a few,) I could never have struck in the 
back a man that had spared my life, and distinguished it 
with honors. 

I was born in a cellar in Broad street — so that (as 
was said of another) I came up stairs into the world; 
and that I shall leave it in a similar manner, there is in 
the family a prediction and a precedent. My lineage 
is as ancient as any other; and perhaps I am descend- 
ed from Romulus himself — for I sometimes think that 
my progenitors may have drawn nourishment and phi- 
lanthropy from a foster mother as gentle as his own. 

My father was a corporal in Tuttle's immortal regi- 
ment, till he was broken for a retrograde movement ex-, 
ecuted without orders. He next pursued a calling analo- 
gous to a soldier's, for, by an easy transition, he became 
a butcher, and sold mutton to the camp. But he met 
with misfortunes in business; that is, he was discovered 
at night with a sheep upon his shoulders, and he could 
in no way make it appear that he had acquired it by pur- 
chase. Consequently he went through the evolution 
called the gauntlet, and as he was lame, and the regi- 
ment large, and cordially disposed to execute the Colo- 
nel's reasonable orders, this manoeuvre quite broke the. 
old man's spirits, while it fractured also a couple of his 
ribs. 

My mother was from the Emerald Island, and the ad- 
vantage that she had gained from the waters of the Lif- 
fey was the only inheritance of her son. 



THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. SOI 

In features, I resembled my sire, whose face was con- 
sidered hard, and I rather improved this character of 
countenance by the cultivation of a formidable whisker. 
I have felt flattered when the ladies called me ' the man 
in the iron mask.' 

In youth my education was neglected, and this I have 
had reason in after life to lament; for an early acquaint- 
ance with books would have advanced my schemes upon 
society, by giving that knowledge of evidence and alibi, 
which I have more expensively acquired, at intervals , 
from the Oounty Attorney. 

In arithmetic, I could never get fairly beyond Subtrac- 
tion; though I have had many battles with my comrades 
in support of my own rule of Division; yet I am not so 
ignorant of numbers, as it was once my ill fortune to pre- 
tend. This was at Auburn, where there is a large col- 
lege, in which all are professors; the president (blast 
his eyes! for he brought the waters into mine,) directed 
me to measure a slab of granite, and also to saw it off, 
at the length of thirtyone inches; but as I disliked the 
problem, I severed the block a few inches short, saying 
in excuse, that I had never been good at figures. 

' Give him thirtyone stripes,' said the president, ' and 
let him keep his own account.' This proposition was a 
poser; but it gave a new impulse to my mathematical 
talent; for when the lash was raised the thirtysecond 
time, I told my instructer that I had already counted 
thirtyone. 

It was at an early age that I enrolled myself in one 
of the two classes into which philosophers divide man- 
kind. My early tastes received much encouragement 
from the theatres, from which I was never absent when 
the play was the Beggar's Opera, or the Forty Thieves. 
The fame of Tom and Jerry has reached me, even here; 
for in our fraternity it is a favorite play; but as it did 
26 



302 THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 

not come out till I myself got in, I can only describe it 
as it has been described to me; that is, a faithful mirror 
to hold up to a gentleman Blackleg. 

I had, from youth upwards, a taste that is said to mark 
a gentleman; I had a passion for wearing white and fine 
linen; and this it was that drew me so often, at evening, 
to the laundress's lines. I had also a singular reverence 
for the beaver, and collected a great many memorials 
(both in skin and fur) of that amphibious animal; for 
when I ' did the genteel thing ' and frequented polite as- 
semblies, I would go out in a hat of felt, upon which, on 
my return, I was sure to find a nap from the castor, and 
in the crown a pair of his gloves. . This, I suppose, is 
the reason why the doctor once said (when I shammed 
sickness and chalked my tongue) that I had been too 
long engaged in the fur trade. 

I now became very diligent in my vocation. I have 
read in my book, of an Emperor who piqued himself on 
being the benefactor, as he was called the ' Delight of 
Mankind.' This weak prince, when the sun had set and 
he performed no worthy action, would exclaim, ' I have 
lost a day;' and I have made the same remark when the 
day has closed, and as little had been performed in my 
own line. 

But these adventures were in what the history calls 
the ' golden age,' for now I have fallen upon iron times. 
In that age of gold, I was animated by the heroic pas- 
sion, and tied my cravat at the sister of a school-fellow; 
but when I called upon her, she directed a servant, (and 
a truculent fellow he was,) to allow me the choice be- 
tween his cudgel and the window; and as he stood di- 
rectly! before the door, to oblige the lady I raised the 
sash. This was, (as they say at the theatre,) but mak- 
ing an exit, as I had often elsewhere made an entrance. 



THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS, 303 

The rations in our corps are not devised to encourage 
the enlistment of recruits, though the ranks are well 
filled by conscriptions. I almost blush to state, that I 
am sometimes fain to suspend my cap by a packthread, 
and draw up through the wires of my cage the few cop- 
pers that charity throws to the unfortunate. This gives 
me a manifest resemblance to Belisarius; but at other 
times, if Allston should behold me, with my iron visage,, 
sitting upon a granite pillar, and shaping it with ham- 
mer and drill, what a picture the world would have of 
Marius, amid the ruins of Carthage! 

Reader! t'aus have I sketched my life, and with but a 
seeming levity, for the reality T could not feel; and the 
levity has been feigned but to keep awake your atten- 
tion, which I fear, is apt to slumber over what is seri- 
ously said. But it is time that I should drop the mask 
which I have assumed only for your advantage. If I 
have grown gray without becoming good, one good ac- 
tion I will do, in giving my example as a warning to 
sons, and my advice as a legacy to fathers. 

If you have an undutiful son, bring him to my cell, 
and I will say to him; ' behold an aged sinner, who has 
human blood in his veins, and who once had human ten- 
derness in his heart; confined, and justly, like a beast 
that ravages and kills. Mark his hair, shagged as a 
hyena's, and shudder at his wolfish eyes. I was in my 
youth, like you, but there was no example such as is now 
before you, to warn me to fly from evil; nor was there 
any kind hand to restrain me in its downward course. 
Now look upon those convicts in the yard, and see the 
savage sneers, with which malice and hatred have dis- 
torted, like a demon's, the human face! If what you 
now behold, cannot divert you from evil, as hopeless is 
your case, as that of the wretch, who has lived for sixty 
years, with no other advantage to his race, than that of 
his appalling example.' L 



SELECTIONS 



THE HANG-BIRD. 

The red-bird that builds on the end of the bough 

A nest like a cottager's, covered with straw, 
Has a note that I loved, when I followed the plough, 
* And the prettiest plumage that ever you saw. 

The Hurons, a cradle in sycamores make, 
That rocks, when the winds the tall pinnacles bend ; 

And safe from the school-boy, the cat, and the snake, 
The hang-bird, her brood from a twig will suspend. 

Then spare the red hang-bird that builds such a nest 
As the birds of the tropic might envy to see ; — 

O soil not with blood the bright hues of his breast, 
But look for a victim in yonder pine tree. 

There's a solemn, ' gray bird,' among ruins that flies, 
In countries where ruins abound more than here ; — 

Come, rest on my shoulder, take aim at his eyes, 
And one enemy less will the mice have, my Dear. 



WOLFE AND MONTCALM, 
Fortunati ambo. 

They raise but a single column fair, 
To the chiefs who fell contending ; 

For death united their ashes there, 
And glory their names is blending. 



305 

The lofty Montcalm, if his spirit glide 
Round the field he has raised in story, 

Will see, with joy, and a warrior's pride, 
That his foes have recorded his glory. 

But the brave are brothers, and when they fall, 
The tears of the brave drop o'er them ; 

For rivalry dies on the sable pall, 

And foemen, as friends, deplore them. 

'T is a hero's prayer to prevail or die, 
And Fortune to Wolfe's relented ; 

For he lingered to hear 'they fly, they fly,' 
Before he could ' die contented.' 

Though few remain, who as greatly dare, 
His glory shall swell their numbers ; 

This, long will the sons of Britain swear, 
On the spot where her hero slumbers. 



PLEASURES. 

There are bubbles that vanish, when grasped in the hand, — 
There are rose-buds that wither, before they expand, — 
There are hopes that are blighted, when brighest they seem, 
And pleasures that fade like the joys of a dream. 

A mirage, when our prospects were desolate grown, 
Its charm o'er the sands of life's desert has thrown ; 
And we hoped when the rest of the desert was past, 
To quench this mad thirst after pleasure at last. 

But from him who pursues it, the faster it flies, 
As the waters seem near, while the traveller dies ; — 
And spice groves before it, their limbs seem to wave 
While the caravan finds in Zahara, a grave. 
26* 



306 

If life in its threshold, so desolate seem, 
If its pleasures are only the joys of a dream, 
If its noon-day with doubt and dismay is perplext,. 
O who would not long for the dawn of the next 



GENERAL FRASER. 



In the pride of his daring, Eraser fell, 
And while slowly away we bore him ; 

The warriors rude, whom he loved so well 
Shed bitter and stern tears o'er him. 

4 1 die ' — he cried to his heart struck chief— 
' Life flows away like a fountain, 

'Let my funeral rites be few and brief, 
And my tomb, the peak of the mountain.' 

There was not a heart, but heaved with wo 

As the hero's hearse ascended, 
Though the vengeful shot of the watchful foe 

With our farewell volley blended. 

But the pilgrim of honor seeks his grave, 
Where the bright clouds rest in glory ; 

His memory lives in the hearts of the brave^ 
And his fame, in his country's story. 



THE DOG STAR. 



Bright star of my fortunes, that shone on my birth, 

And nerves that would vibrate, and blood that would burn ; 

Thy ray never falls on the cold of the earth, 
Whose hearts are as dull as the sleep of the urn. 



301 



But souls that have feeling, and fancy, and fire, 
Hearts that can glow, through obstructions of clay, 

And hands that can waken the lute and the lyre, 
Derive the rich gifts from thy tempering ray. 

Thou sett'st on the forehead of Beauty, thy seal, 
And the soft light of passion thou shedd'st in her eyes ; 

With blood in her pulses, that will not congeal, 
Like that of the daughters of temperate skies. 

Bright star of my fortunes, impress on my soul 
An ardour for virtue, a passion for fame ; 

Light my wandering steps to that far distant goal, 
And set in the heavens, like Castor's, my name. 



SORROWS OF A ROAN HORSE. 

When I was a colt, in a Green-mountain glade, 
My mane it was long, and in thunder arrayed : 
My delight was to frolic, to bite, and to play, 
And to care, when it came, my reply was a nay. 

When I nibbled the clover, in pastures of green, 
A mole that was sleeker you never have seen : 
I was good at a gallop, and great at a rack, 
But tremendous, with Major Mc' Wrath on my back. 

Poor Major, he furnished me many an oat, 
And cohered me often when cold, with his coat ; 
He was honest and kind, and I found him a friend, 
Till brought by podagra and wine to his end. 

I was sold like a negro, at six years of age, 
To a master who. drove like Jehu in a rage ; — 
In his harness I trotted fourteen to the hour, 
And he sold me again, when I wanted the power. 



But time was at work on my mane and my tail, 
And through many gradations in misery's scale 
I descended, at last, to that lowest of ill, 
For a horse or a rogue, and went round in a mill. 

On the Sabbath, a rest both to beast and to man, 
I shamble away from the wheel and the tan, 
To a lane where the thistles are bitter and tall, 
Though the clover is blossoming over the wall. 

But my race of existence is rapid and brief, 
My sorrows will end at the fall of the leaf; 
For my master I heard, when the farrier was by, 
Say, in accents of wo, 'poor old horse — let him die.'- 



FOURTH OF JULY. 



Let the voice of thanksgiving have utterance now, 
Sing the praise of the good, in the land of the free : 

Let the breeze that is waving the blossom and bough, 
Waft the song of our gladness o'er mountain and sea ; 

Far south, where the orange is bending with fruit, 
And the laurel shoots up to a pinnacle fair, 

The voice of rejoicing no longer is mute, 
For the patriot is breathing his orisons there. 

Far west, where he lingers ere sets the bright sun, 
There is feasting, and music, and pageant, to day ; 

For the fame of the heroes, whose labors are done, 

And whose name from the scroll can no time wash away. 

One only remains, like a pillar at Rome, 

The column of Trajan, to stamp on the mind 

How great is the race that has past to the tomb, 
And how sacred the fame, they have left to mankind. 



309 



THE DEFORMED TRANSFORMED. 

A DREAM. 

Methought that I sat by the side of the way, 

When an old man approached me, whose tresses were gray, 

And ashed me the cause why I looked so dejected, 

If my love were despised, or my merit neglected. 

To merit said I, my pretence is but small, 
And of love, honored sir, I know nothing at all ; 
But if the soft passion my heart should assail, 
'T is not merit I fear, in the suit would prevail. 

My son, said the sage, thy remark is but just ; 
Then take you a box of this magical dust, 
Which he that is lucky enough to obtain, 
Has a balm for all woes and a cure for all pain. 

Though you limp, I confess, like an ass in a fetter, 
This will alter your gait, Mr Tag, for the better ; 
Though you squint like a Satyr direct from the wood, 
'T is no more, 'twill be said, 'than a man of sense should.' 

A similar change will be made in your wit, 
For which there is chance enough, too, I admit ; 
Till Friendship shall praise what it slighted before, 
And Beauty shall scorn, while she charms thee no more. 

Thus the limp of thy leg and the squint of thy eyes 

Amended, and thou become witty and wise ; 

Be loud and vehement, pugnacious and bold, 

Which the weakest may be with this dust, which is gold, 



310 



HARVEST HOME. 



Brave sons of New England, high lords of the soil, 
With hands ever ready to give and to toil ; 
The harvest is bending o'er valley and plain, 
Come, come, to its festival labor again. 

We boast not the olive, we want not the vine ; 
For the orange and citron we do not repine ; 
We look at no climate with envious eyes, 
For what nature refuses our labor supplies. 

Our country we serve when we follow the plough, 
And 'tis seldom a traitor is wiping his brow; 
But the labor we love, is the pledge of our faith 
To the land that we live in, through danger and death. 

Then long be that land the abode of the free, 
Afar may its fall in futurity be ; — 
Long, long, may its harvests so bountiful wave, 
And long may they gladden the hearts of the brave. 



WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN. 

Our hopes are a cheat, and our joys are a dream ; — 
We are dew on the flowers, we are flies on the stream ; 
And downward we float, without caution or fear, 
For the water is smooth, but the cataract near. 

And sooner with evil, than good, we comply, 
For we love but a season and hate till we die ; 
We forgive in our foes, any injury past, 
But those that we injure, we pardon the last. 

What is friendship ? a wish to make use of our friends ;- 
Ambition ? bad means to accomplish worse ends ; 
What is love ? he will find in his bosom who delves, 
'T is that ardent affection we feel for ourselves. 



311 

Our love is all selfish, our honor all pride, 
And many a wretch like a hero has died ; 
Our wit is but malice, and who tries to smother 
The laugh it excites at the cost of another. 

Our reason what is 't? I am blushing for mine, 
It has led me so oft in a devious line ; 
For when reason and passion blow contrary ways, 
Which, pray, is the impulse the vessel obeys ? 



LAMENT. 



Lament, my sad friend, for the days that are over, 
And dread in the future, more ills than the past ; 

For, as I was once told by a Doctor in Dover, 
The toughest of grinders, to ache, are hte last. 

O had we but lived in the fabulous ages, 
When men were all honest, contented, and true ; 

When youth was instructed in virtue by sages, 
And criminal judges had nothing to do . 

Or in those later times that we find in romances, 
When honor pertained to the brave and the strong ; 

When lords, for the right, perilled breaking of lances, 
Which ladies would smile on, though broke for the wrong. 

O for that era of beauty and banners, 

When minstrels like us, could win riches and fame ; 
When if morals were easy, the better the manners, 

Than in folks, that it might be a libel to name. 



312 



THE CALUMNIATOR. 

Behold a tall tree that is blasted, my son, 
Yet not by the lightning, though heavy the stroke ; 

More surely the work of destruction was done, — 
And mark thou the foe, that can prostrate an oak. 

Vile worm ! could a reptile as feeble as thou, 
Destroy in its strength, a magnificent tree ? 

Did the hurricane pass, when it shattered the bough, 
But to leave the strong trunk, as a victim to thee ? 

There are some of our lineage as slowly that die, 
And by reptiles more loathsome than any that crawl ; 

While the foe that destroys them, no one can descry, 
For the arrow is hidden, till after their fall. 

Thus a calumny strikes to the sensitive heart, 
Which, the less it discloses, the more it endures : 

While the hand that directed and poisoned the dart, 
May be that of a. friend; but should never be yours. 



GRAND MENAGERIE.— FATHER AND SON. 

Oh, what is that beautiful animal, Dad, 
So tame and so gentle ? — A Tiger, my lad 
And this, with an innocent aspect, and mild ? 
How honest he seems. — That is Reynard, my child. 

What a fierce looking beast, with those terrible ears, 
And a roar so appalling, how bold he appears ! 
Though tied, I am fearful so near him to pass. — 
The beast that you dread, little son, is an Jlss. 



313 

And what bird is this, with so thoughtful a stare, 
Like yours, when at caucus you sat in the chair? 
It seems like a solemn and sensible fowl, 
What call you it Father? — Ahem ! 'tis an Owl. 

And the little green fellow that hangs in the cage, 
Haranguing the other, like one in a rage, 
Or like you, when you spoke in town meeting last year ? — 
A plague on your figures ! — A Parrot, my dear, 

And this pretty thing looks a little like you, 

Though his tail, Dad, is not half so long as your queue — 

But why does he prate and gesticulate so ? — 

'T is a Monkey — confound him — my son, let us go. 

In the street I will show you a biped, my dear, 

With a trait of each animal seen by us here. 

Oh, what is it Father ? — I '11 run, if I can — 

Were his shape like his heart you would run from a Man. 



TO A BUTTERFLY IN FEBRUARY. 

The sunshine to-day is a traitor, poor fly, 
Like hope that deceives while it promises bliss ; 

When evening approaches, prepare thee to die, — 
O why came you forth at a season like this ? 

There is ice on the stream ; there is frost in the bower 
Where lilies and roses were blending before, 

And thy wing, that in hue would have rivalled the flower, 
Tomorrow will glitter and flutter no more. 

Thy fate that I mourn, the creation pervades, 
And man, its high lord, may with sympathy sigh ; 

For the flower that is fairest, the first is that fades, 
And the best and the bravest, the earliest die. 
27 



314 



There was one, and I loved her ' not wisely but well,' 
Too fragile for earth, and too perfect for me ; 

Who is gone where the perfect in happiness dwell, 
In a place that we butterflies never may see. 



TRANSMIGRATION 



' Centum errant annos, volitantque hsec littora circum ; 
Turn demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt.' 

At Salem, one day in the year '21, 
On the wharf I encountered a lad with a gun ; 
And asked if the game was abundant and fat, 
When he grinned and replied, <I am after a rat' 

An old sailor approached us, and opening the lid 
Of a small box of iron, he bit off a quid, 
Saying, < hold, master Richard, avast with your fire ! 
If you shoot at that rat, you may hit your own sire. 

'It v/as held by our fathers, whose spirits are fled, 
That we take other bodies when these are once dead 
And that masters and mates from the town we are at, 
Will revive after death, in the shape of a rat. 

' And here on the wharf they frequented before, 
They wander, like ghosts, on the Stygian shore ; 
Until to an island afar, they take flight, 
Where cat cannot catch them, or terrier bite. 

' That long whiskered thing at the verge of his hole, 
Is, I verily think, sir, inspired by the soul 
Of a man that I sailed with for seventeen years,— 
That rat is the remnant of Benjamin Beers. 



315 



'But that isle * is his paradise — thither no cat 

Shall come to disturb the long rest of the rat : 

And there do I hope to cast anchor, midway 

Prom the port whence I sailed, to the coast of Bombay.' 



TOBACCO. 



'T is a curse to the soil, 't is a worm to the purse ; 
For the breath it is bad — for the character, worse ;— 
Abjure it, — or live among barbarous tribes, 
That Beauty abhors and that Fashion proscribes. 

O, gallant Sir Walter ! it marred thy fair shield, 
To smoke, like a Savage, this pest of the field ; 
Vile weed ! and but fit for the wigwam and kraal, 
For an Indian powow, or Hottentot ball. 

Yet, there lived in the city a bold man of war, 

Who, more than his mistress, esteemed his segar ; 

For the bridemaids were blushing, the groomsmen were 

joking, 
When he gave up the enterprise, rather than smoking, 

Were the Venus de Medicis scented with snuff", 
A glimpse of her limbs would be more than enough : — 
For the sight, that mankind are for centuries pleased at, 
It should never be said, is a thing to be sneezed at. 

* St Helena. 






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